


A Lost Power

by Adagal



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, But they come back, Friendship, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Poorly done fight scenes, Someone dies, if you need me to disclaimer something here just lmk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27519541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adagal/pseuds/Adagal
Summary: Rin had a normal life, until she discovered she had powers; she was a User (how original!) and therefore a threat in the eyes of those who want her dead. She has powers of creating plants and bringing them to life. But the gift of Life can be a dangerous thing.Disclaimer- Kit and Tsukiyomi do not belong to me. They belong to Mahoustar and Draconia1011 respectively! huge thanks for letting me use them in the story!
Comments: 90
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

Rin's life was over from the second she sat on the bench.

Sure, it didn't seem it would start like that. Rin sat on that bench all the time. She liked how it overlooked the local soccer field, and on days the team was practicing, she enjoyed the energy in the air.

Of course, now, it was late in the afternoon, so hardly anyone was around. She could see the setting sun bathe the sky in pinks and yellows, the blues of recent behind her. It was nice for Rin, she enjoyed the silence around her, aside from the various crickets and other evening life. The bushes nearby housed colorful flowers, matching the sunset in the background.

Licking her lips, she unwrapped a popsicle she had just bought with her daily savings, as a small celebration for making through another week. She sat back, and basked in the small moment that she hadn't had for a long time. It was all nice until a man jumped her from seemingly nowhere and tackled her to the ground.

Rin struggled around, but the guy had pinned down her legs with his own, held her hands down with one hand, and started feeling around her body, presumably for her wallet, and if not, Rin didn't wanna stick around either way. She opened her mouth and let out the biggest scream she could muster, only to hear no sound. Her eyes watered in terror, before looking up to see the man's eyes glowed a stark white. Her mind ran on overdrive now, realizing she was jumped by a User.

She continued to wiggle around, though now much more violently, trying to find a weak point, until she managed to wiggle a leg out and quickly kneed him in the stomach. He grunted and leaned down more on Rin, giving her an opportunity to bite his shoulder that was holding her hands down. He yelped and rolled over, releasing his grip, and allowing Rin to turn the tables.

She jumped onto his body, digging her feet into his thighs, and her nails into his forearms. The man struggled a little, and Rin was about to jump off him and run home, but then he started to cough out blood. Rin wanted to run away at that point, but as she moved her arms and legs, she realized she couldn't move. Her shoes felt like lead, her nails were glued into the man's skin.

The man kept coughing out blood, until he started to choke. Rin squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could shut out the noise. But she continued to listen to the man choking, who then made a screeching noise, and then a splatter. The man stopped moving after that.

Rin moved her hands and feet, they'd unlatched from their targets. Slowly, she removed herself from the body, nervous to look at the result. Her eyes had other ideas though, as she opened them to see what happened to him. She instantly gagged and recoiled back from the sight.

The man's eyes had popped out of his head, vines growing from his sockets outwards, drenching half of his face in blood. Flowers of all kinds and colors sprouted from his mouth like he had hanahaki disease. And huge, thorny vines sprouted through his chest and stomach, like they shot through from the ground. Rin noticed that specifically, little vines had sprouted from where her fingers and feet were planted on his body.

Rin gagged again and ran away, hoping the pounding of her feet would drown out her thoughts. Did she do that? She'd never done anything like that until just then. She prayed no one else was around.

She didn't stop running until she reached her apartment. She ran to her room, shut the door, and collapsed on the carpet, sobbing. She was curled up in the fetal position, hands on her head.

"No, no, get out, get out," she whimpered. The image was burned into her head; she couldn't escape it. Her gasps were shallow, breathing like that until she felt lightheaded and couldn't fight her sudden fatigue. She let her body sink into the floor, and remained like that the rest of the night.

* * *

Miku jogged around the block, the midnight lamps guiding her way. She hummed the tunes of her favorite singer as they played on her phone. Suddenly, the song stopped.

"Breaking News!" a voice announced. "A man was found dead at the local park. It's believed to be the work of an Ability User. Vines and flowers grew out of his body and face, though have since withered away. Yet another dead this month from a User, a sad time for all. Now back to your regular radio broadcast."

The song on Miku's phone continued to play, but Miku had stopped running long before. She tapped her foot, a questioning look on her face. She had never heard of a Vine, or Plant Ability before. Growth, yes, but that was a different ballpark than what the newsman described. She put a hand to her chin, unsure of what to think. She then jumped at the sound of her ringtone in her ears. Stumbling over her hands, she grabbed her phone and took the call.

"Miku? Where are you?"

"Relax Luka. I was just out for a run," Miku sighed. She could hear a deep growl over the phone.

"Oh I swear, sometimes it feels like you're begging to get caught."

"I can't be out any other time, you know that, and the track stinks! All that circular-ness to it. At least here holds something different."

"Ugh, as long as you're careful, I'm not mad. Just, at least come back in the next few minutes." A beep, then the call ended. Miku sighed, then turned her phone back to the radio station. She flipped a strand of hair over her shoulder, and started her jog home.

 _Oh crud! I should've asked her if she heard the news just now!_ Miku thought. _Then again, I guess she would know, considering she usually know about most things User-related._ Miku smiled as she shook off the conversation with herself and focused on heading home. She hummed a simple tune as she passed by the soccer field, when feeling a burning light against her eyes. Miku looked up and found blinding lights surrounding a dark figure. The large area around the figure was taped off, and multiple people were talking.

Miku let out a soft gasp before disappearing behind some nearby trees. It wasn't like it would be instant bad news if they saw her, they probably wouldn't have noticed her anyway, but even then she felt like she had to see what was going on.

"It can't be that hard to get him out!" one man yelled.

"We're goddamn trying boss, but he's just... stuck there!" another man growled.

"Get a weed wacker or something then! Those vines can't be too thick, can they?"

Miku held a tight grip on the tree branch as she realized this was the man who got killed earlier. She didn't know it was this gruesome. The more she looked at him, the worse it seemed. Not only were there the vines poking out of his middle and legs, but she could see his eyeballs were hanging far from their sockets, as well as a bush of flowers, albeit now wilted, in his mouth.

"I guess we can only thank whoever killed him for one reason," the boss mumbled.

"Why's that?" the man asked. The boss seemed to grumble a little at the question.

"Because from the look of it, this guy was a User as well."

Miku could feel her legs go numb.

"How can you tell? He's dead!" another guy challenged.

"Look at his eyes," the boss explained. "When normal people die, their eyes fade, right? When Users die, their eyes have a slight glow to them. This one's glowing."

Miku nodded to herself to confirm. While a few questions were answered, now she just had more questions. Why was the User attacked? What did they have? Who did it? Did they kill other Users? These swam through Miku's psyche, begging to be answered by someone, anyone. She held her hands close to her chest as she slowly walked back onto the path, and started to walk back home, praying the authorities actually didn't notice her the entire time.


	2. Chapter 2

Rin rolled around on the carpet, waking herself up. What happened last night? All she could remember was the popsicle, then a man attacked her, then...

The second Rin sat up, she gasped, quickly taking off her shirt. On the shirt was blood. She really did commit a murder, with plants too. Which also confirmed her other fear, that she was possibly a User. Rin put her blood-stained shirt, along with the rest of her clothes, in the trash, then pulled on new clothes. Now she felt ready to test that 'possibly'.

She took a deep breath and wandered to the bathroom. She stared in the mirror and saw she had blood stains on her face and the ends of her hair as well. Goodness, if anyone saw her last night, she was surprised the cops hadn't already taken her away.

Rin decided it was at least a decent opportunity to take a shower, her hair was getting greasy anyway. She removed her clothes and headwear, and stepped into the shower, allowing the warm water to rush over her face and body, cleaning the grime and blood of yesterday. After a quick shampoo and condition, Rin thought it was time to see if last night was a hallucination after all.

She turned off the shower and looked up at the shower head. If she really made those vines grow last night, she could make those same vines grow from her shower head.

 _Ok, grow vines now!_ Rin thought to herself. Her eyes strained on the tiny holes within the shower head, but alas, nothing happened. Rin sighed, at least somewhat content with the notion that she didn't do anything. Until she gave a playful slap to the shower head, and her hand stuck there.

 _It's just a suction thing._ Rin thought at first, but as she moved her hand around to try and get it to unstick, she quickly realized that wasn't the case.

 _What the hell is in my shower?_ she panicked. _Come on, whatever it is, it can't be this stubborn!_

With a couple tugs and grunts, Rin managed to at least loosen her hand from her shower head... only to realize the green stuff that was supposedly in the shower was connected to her hand as well.

"AAAAAAAAAGETITOFFGETITOFF!" she yelled, back against the wall, furiously shaking her hand to get the green stuff off. Whatever she was doing, she couldn't get it off. With a huff, Rin realized there was only one other option.

Slowly, Rin felt the green whatevers with her other hand to understand what she was dealing with. A few seconds later, she sensed they were little stalks, like ones on..a..plant.

Suddenly, it felt like her whole world went spinning. The stalks, the vines, everything connected now. Her worst fear came true. She was a User.

But she could think about that later. Now, she had to remove the stalks. She would've gone for scissors, but there weren't a reachable pair in the bathroom. Instead, gritting her teeth, Rin grabbed the stalks, and started to rip them apart from her hand. It felt a little painful, but she managed to get the stalks separated relatively easily. What really creeped her out was afterward, when the broken off stalks still attached to her, retreated back into her hand. Chills were sent down Rin's spine, which was when she realized she was still naked in the shower.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Rin hopped out of the shower and put on her clothes. She didn't have work until the afternoon, so she could spend another hour or so just to relax.

To take her mind off of the shower incident, Rin decided to get outside and clear her head. Not caring in the moment about her hairstyle, she just decided to slip in a few hair clips and her headband, before putting on a pair of sunglasses and setting out for a little bit.

At the front of the apartment building, Rin decided to head to the shopping district to get some window shopping in. It was nice to get an idea of the things she could possibly buy one day, although she didn't have a lot of spending money at all times. So with her head held high and a smile on her face, she strode to the direction of the shopping district.

The stores that lined the streets never ceased to amaze Rin, no matter how many times she walked to this area of the town. The clothing stores always had something new in their windows, looking gorgeous on the mannequins that posed in stylish ways. The jewelry stores had stunning stones that reflected and refracted the light that shone through the windows in marvelous ways. One shouldn't even get Rin started on the candy store, with its variety of sweets and chocolate that had the gall to mock Rin every time she walked by it.

 _I guess I could check out the boutique first_. Rin shrugged, already making her way inside. The overly pristine and fancy vibe had instantly seeped its way into Rin's very soul as she stood in the main lobby, taking in the busy energy of the shoppers as they walked past her, looking for new makeup or clothing items to wear. A mother and daughter looking at sweaters, a businessman looking at a display of watches, two small kids sitting on the floor, playing on a device while their mother tried on heels, it felt nice to Rin as an escape from home and work life. Just knowing she wasn't busy with her time, and could gawk at the nice, soft, luscious things that the store held made her feel like she had reached the nirvana.

Rin wandered around the three floors the boutique had before taking her leave for another shop to browse around at. She had just made it halfway to the next place, when she heard a scream from behind her. She snapped around to see a girl maybe about Rin's age running for her life, lavender purple hair flowing in the wind, and utter terror on her face. Rin had seen this before; another User was getting hunted.

As the girl passed Rin, their eyes connected for only one moment, but to Rin, it felt like she'd learned everything about this girl. She had to help somehow, right?

Rin looked behind her, sure enough, the Hunters had just started gaining in as well. Rin pressed her back against the wall of the shop as they gained closer, closer...

If she had just let them run past, it wouldn't have mattered in the end. Tons of Users died all the time, it was out of fear by the normal people. Rin, for one, was just part of the crowd up until that point. In all honesty, it would've made Rin's life easier had she just not done anything.

Instead, as the first Hunter passed by Rin, she slapped her hand on his arm to get his attention.

"Hm? What do you want?" he asked.

"She's getting away!" the second guy said from behind.

"You go get 'er, I'll catch up!" the first guy ordered. The second guy saluted and ran off.

"So what do you want?" the Hunter repeated.

Rin put on her best innocent girl face and said, "Forgive me for being dumb here, but why are you chasing that girl? She seemed pretty young and scared." The Hunter chuckled and replied,

"It's alright you don't know, kid. I'll keep it brief, cause I gotta job to do- we chase people like her because they pose a serious threat to our society, they disrupt the natural order of our rules, so we gotta deal with em the best we can."

"Ah, I see. But what happens when you catch her?" Rin asked.

"Look, like I said, I gotta job to do, so just look it up on your phone or something. Nice talking to ya kid." The man started to run off, but Rin, in a foolish move, slapped her hand back on the man's forearm.

"The hell, kid?" the man groaned, starting to tug his arm away, only to have Rin's hand tugged along with him.

"What the hell are you doing?" he yelled. He grabbed Rin's hand and lifted it up, to find a bunch of thin stalks growing in between. Rin made a nervous chuckle.

"Oh you're dead!" he screamed, lunging to grab her. Rin yelped and snapped her hand away, making a break for it. She did something a little good, right? Even if that meant she was about to die now, that girl had less to deal with now. Rin could only pray everything would work out.

* * *

"Ah! It's so nice out!" Miku exclaimed, spinning around as she walked down the busy streets with her friends Luka and Gumi.

"It was like this yesterday Miku, it's not that rare," Gumi laughed.

"Perhaps, but it's still September. Soon we won't get these warm days anymore, so we should make them last, right?"

"Goodness, what made you a poet suddenly?" Luka joked.

The three girls joked and chatted as they strutted down the sidewalk, like all the tension in the world had suddenly been lifted from them. Miku's hair frazzled as she rambled on about all the beautiful things in the shops, while Gumi licked her lips as they passed by a popcorn stand. Luka just sighed, looking at all the busy shoppers walk the city streets. What a world they all lived in.

"I'm gonna look for some new shoes," Luka said, one foot already inside the bargain shoe store. Miku and Gumi nodded and walked off to browse another place.

"Hmm, should we check the bath and body shop, or browse the arcade?" Gumi mused out loud. The two of them stood in front of a toy store, looking at the shop in front of them and the arcade across the street.

"I could go for the bakery," Miku commented.

Suddenly, a screech caught the girls' attention. They turned around to find a blond haired girl rounding a corner and running for her life. She shoved people out of the way, but Gumi noticed a slight struggle against the girl's hand and the limbs of people she pushed away. And that combined with her slight, but noticeable glow of green in her eyes when it happened, confirmed to Gumi that it was another User.

"Get back here!" a gruff voice yelled from far away. Gumi suddenly lost all feeling in her arms, and latched onto Miku's shoulder.

"Miku, we gotta help her," she whispered. Miku nodded.

"I have a plan," she said. Miku subtly stepped out more into the sidewalk, in the girl's way. As she ran past, she pushed Miku's arm away, but latching onto it like she had with other passersby, slowing her down slightly. Now she had a chance. Miku grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearest alley.

"This way," Miku loudly whispered. The blond haired girl started to yell and pull her hand away, but it was no use, as Miku had grabbed her tightly.

"It'll be ok," Gumi said, running next to the girl. "You have to trust us on this, but you're safe now."

"Here," Miku said, jumping into the dumpster at the end of the wall. The blond haired girl fell in after her, still attached to Miku's arm, with Gumi close behind.

"Please stop struggling," Gumi pleaded, trying to stop the blond girl from removing her hand from Miku's arm.

"Let me go," she sobbed.

"Listen to me, listen." Miku put a hand on the girl's stuck one. "We are not here to hurt you. We wanted to help you get away from that Hunter. Trust me, as soon as we're done here and you're free, we'll let you go. We just wanted to help." She turned to Gumi. "Is he gone?"

Gumi moved over a trash bag and squeaked open the lid of the dumpster, peering out into the open. Nobody was there.

"He might be waiting for us," she whispered. "I'll go check things out."

"Be careful," Miku responded, Gumi already slipping her way out.

"What is she doing?" the blond haired girl gasped.

"Trust me, she knows what she's doing," Miku replied. "Now, let's just focus on getting your hand off my arm."

As though in response, the girl lifted up her hand, the stalks from earlier now gone. It suddenly struck Miku in realization.

"You're the User from yesterday," she said. The girl's face went ghostly pale.

"I...didn't mean to," she almost mouthed.

"No, no, it's ok. What happened then?" Miku asked. The girl didn't respond, she now looked far off, like she was recounting the whole experience. Miku leaned back a little, hanging her head.

"Sorry, didn't mean to pry there," she apologized. "I just had passed by the guy as he was getting carried away, and I heard about it on the news."

The girl's eyes widened. "News?" she hyperventilated. Miku shot up.

"Whoa, whoa, nobody ever said it was specifically you. It's ok, I don't think anyone else knew either," she tried to console. But the girl was once again, in her own world, clutching her arms and curling up, before passing out. It was then that Gumi returned, lifting the lid up with one hand while trying to get her skirt back on with the other.

"We're safe," she announced, before looking at the blond girl. "Is she ok?"

"She passed out after I mentioned she was on the news. She's the User who killed the guy last night," Miku explained. Gumi breathed an "Oh." before lifting the lid away with both hands and gesturing for Miku to leave.

Miku climbed out of the dumpster, then bent over to pick up the blond haired girl, cradling her like a baby.

"Should we take her to the hideout?" she asked. Gumi nodded.

"If she's found by another Hunter, I wouldn't want her to be hurt or worse. Let's get going."

The girls nonchalantly wandered out of the alley, heading from the city to the piers by the lake.

"What about Luka?" Miku suddenly remembered.

"I'm going to call her now and let her know what happened," Gumi replied, taking out her phone. Miku nodded, content. She hoisted the girl back up as they now entered the docks, where Gumi knocked on a piled of crates. The crates moved to uncover a set of stairs, leading down to the hideout.


	3. Chapter 3

Rin woke up in what looked like a lounge, or even her own apartment's living space. There was a large-ish kitchen area (though she assumed that wasn't all the kitchen there), a bunch of tables and couches, a few TVs hung up on the walls, and to the side, a set of double doors, supposedly leading to more rooms. The only other thing that Rin could notice was the soft, cool lighting, as well as the dozens of people sitting and chatting. It looked like a nightclub, and sounded like a loud auditorium before the play would start. So yeah, like a nightclub.

She herself laid on one of the couches that was closer to the kitchen, further away from everyone. She trailed a hand up to her forehead, where a washcloth sat. She grabbed it and set it to the floor.

"Oh, you woke up!" a voice cheered. Rin curled up a little to see the blue haired girl from earlier sitting next to her. Rin yelped and jumped back.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she panicked. The blue haired girl held her hands up and chuckled nervously.

"It's ok. Gumi and I helped you back in the city, you passed out after you heard about your thing on the news, so we brought you here. Hope that's ok," she explained. Rin's eyes widened, but she wasn't as nervous about the statement like earlier. She supposed that was a good thing.

"Oh! We haven't introduced ourselves, have we? I'm Hatsune Miku," The blue haired girl held out a hand, her face a pleasant smile. Rin sat up fully and shook her hand.

"Kagamine Rin." Miku's eyes widened.

" _Kagamine_ Rin?" she asked. Rin nodded, confused.

"Hold on." Miku gestured for Rin to stay sitting as she sped off behind a far off set of doors. Rin just curled up her knees as she looked around. No one seemed to really take notice to her, like she was just another face in the crowd. One other thing that Rin noticed was that just from the looks of some of the people, and what they did, that they were Users. She saw one young girl lift up five apples without placing her hands on them, there was one man who made snowflakes fall for a collection of schoolchildren who leapt up to catch them. There was even a man who was charging another guy's phone, Rin assumed he could utilize electricity.

Suddenly, the doors swung open again, with Miku leading a blond haired boy out by the hands, covering his eyes with her... pigtails?

"What are you showing me?" he asked.

"You'll know when you see," Miku giggled. She made him stop right in front of Rin and opened his eyes. A boy whose face looked extremely similar to Rin's stood in front of her, down to the blue eyes, though his bangs were all fly away and messy.

"I thought I remembered you talking about a twin sister. So Len, meet Rin," Miku introduced. Rin instantly slapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes tearing up. The boy, Len, did the same.

"Oh my god," Len whispered.

"It's you," Rin sobbed. She ran up to Len and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing loudly. Len hugged her back tightly, sobbing as well, his wrists digging into her shoulder blades. Miku stood off to the side, tearing up and smiling from ear to ear.

"How long has it been?" Len asked. "At least 5 years, right?"

"More like an eternity," Rin added. "How old were we, three? When mom and dad split up?"

"...I think so. And now you're here too."

"How long have you been here?"

"Since I was eight. How have you been? I see you're a User too."

"It's been going downhill since then, but I'll be ok."

"Hey, so uh," another voice broke up the reunion, as Rin and Len broke the hug to see a pink haired woman walk up to everyone. "I see you two have finally met."

"Luka! Hi!" Miku greeted her. "Gumi filled you in?"

"Every word," Luka agreed. "By the way, that girl that you helped out?" Luka gestured to Rin. "With the purple hair? I found her and brought her here as well. Says her name's Yukari."

"Hey, look at you saving a life." Len patted Rin on the back, her face quickly turning beet red.

"Wait, how did you know I helped her?" Rin asked.

"She told me a blond haired girl distracted one of the Hunters, gave her enough time to outsmart the other and escape with me. Seeing how you're here now, and from what Gumi said, I assume she meant you."

"How did she know you were trustworthy?"

"Word about our little group gets around sometimes." Though her face said otherwise, Rin was surprised how on beat Luka answered that one. _How many times has she gotten that question?_

"Oh. Where is she?" Rin instead asked.

"I was gonna give her a tour of this place. You interested too?" Luka gestured to the familiar double doors Rin had seen. Rin shrugged and nodded in response.

"I'll go with!" Len added, shooting his hand up like he was in school. Luka grinned.

"Glad that's settled! Let's go get Yukari and set off then, shall we?"

* * *

Miku smiled as Rin, Len, and Luka walked off. She was happy to have reunited the two, it seemed like they hadn't seen each other for so long based on their conversation. But she had more important matters to attend to for the time being. A more determined expression on her face, she set off to find Gumi.

Gumi had been chatting with a red headed girl as Miku walked up, phone in hand.

"Is this a bad time?" she squeaked.

"Oh, no not at all. I was just explaining the plan actually," Gumi responded. She angled her laptop so Miku could view the screen.

"Since we know one of the Hunters' HQ is underneath here," she pointed to a donut shop on a map, "That makes it easy for us to gather intel on the Hunters as a whole, know what they're planning, etc etc. Which is good, since we just found out they're planning to raid another hideout, in this area here." Gumi pointed at a blue patch on a farm. "SeeU and the others already know about it thankfully, but they could still use some backup. They want a few of us to head over and help em out."

"Anyone specific?" Miku asked.

"Lola wants me, you, Teto, and some other guys to go. That ok with you?"

"Yeah, sure!" Miku pumped a fist. "When do we leave?"

"In a couple minutes, they seem to be moving fast. Get ready, we're meeting at Point V2."

Gumi and the red head stood up and left, presumably for Point V2. Miku followed them close behind. She was excited to see SeeU and the others again, albeit it was to help stop the Hunters from raiding the compound.

At Point V2, Miku saw everyone suiting up for the fight. Including her, she assumed there must've been 20 people here. The red head from earlier, Teto, slid on a pair of goggles over her curly pigtails and unfolded her bat-like wings, while Gumi zipped up her black bodysuit and buckled the belt on her camo pants. Miku tightened her pigtails and slid a headset on. It was the only real set uniform the hideout had for its freedom fighters, and the only thing she needed. A TV screen nearby flashed, showing the face of one of the leaders, Lola.

"Glad to see you're all here. Here's the basics. The hideout in the farmlands is getting raided by Hunters, and you all are going to provide backup. Gumi will lead this group, but everyone will listen to SeeU no matter what, as she leads that hideaway. Stay close, stay safe, and give the leader of that debacle an extra kick in the ass for the rest of us!" Everyone cheered.

"Now get out!" Lola declared, the TV cutting to black. The porthole next to the group then opened, and everyone rushed out through the tunnel to the farmlands.

The tunnel ended at a large panel on the ground, which glowed brighter and brighter as they rushed toward it.

"Everyone in a straight line!" Gumi commanded. Though even with Gumi's words, everyone had already gone into a straight line, like this was all clockwork to them. Each person was zapped away as they stepped onto the panel, and when Miku's turn was up, she gripped her arms tightly. The sensation never stopped being weird to her, despite her having used the teleporter at least a million times.

She opened her eyes again to another dark and musty tunnel like the last, but now she could see everyone rushing to another port. The port then opened to another piece of tunnel that led to a large grate. Gumi was the first to reach the grate, and she pushed it away to open a way to the outside world, ushering everyone else through before climbing her way out.

"We're here SeeU," Gumi announced to the whole hideaway. A girl with light blond hair and cat ears stepped out to meet everyone.

"Great to see you guys," she said. "Hey Miku," she waved back at the excited blue haired girl. "Most of us are able to hold down the fort here, but we'll still need some here to help us."

"Should we halve the group then?" Gumi asked. SeeU nodded and shrugged.

"That should work." Gumi turned to the rest of her group.

"Ok guys! I'm splitting you guys up here!" Gumi pushed her way down the people, separating them into two teams. "Everyone on my left side, take the next tunnel to the panel that'll send you guys to the surface, and fight off those Hunters! I will be with you guys! The rest of you, listen to SeeU and help her protect the hideout!" Everyone mumbled in agreement.

Miku moaned a little, as she was on the hideout team, but it was still important to do as most else. She waved goodbye to everyone who ran for the next tunnel, then turned back to see who else she was with.

She saw a kid with white hair cut to her chin, a pair of twins with black hair; none of these people she knew that well, but saw them around enough to know them by face.

"Ok guys, since they know about our base now, we're going to have to relocate. Luckily, Yanhe and I have been planning this for a while, and we have a set place. I'm going to ask you all to go through all the rooms here and use these little babies," SeeU handed out little remote like device to a few kids, "to zap them away. My friends are already at it, we just need you to finish the job! Go!"

Miku ran off with everyone to the nearest rooms, or ones that hadn't been gone through yet at least. She stumbled upon a room with a young boy who had pink feathers for hair zapping at the bunk beds on the walls, when an box that was on the top of one of the zapped bunks started to fall, the contents spilling out as well.

The boy jumped away a little, the box itself falling in front of his feet, but Miku then saw a toy clown headed for his head. The boy covered his head with his hands, but Miku jumped in and caught the toy with her pigtail. The kid looked up to see a curtain of blue hair above him, only to lower and plop the toy into the kid's open hand. He gleefully put it and the other items back into the box and zapped it.

"Thanks, Miss!" he said. Miku smiled and bowed in return.

"You have some cool hair!" he added. Miku blushed and petted one of her pigtails.

"Thanks, you too!" she said. "Now let's get rid of the rest of this room, ok?"

With a triple check and a dust from her pigtails, it was like no one had ever breathed in that room. Miku ushered the kid out to the next room, with her following close behind. Suddenly, a buzz on her headset from Gumi.

"Change of plans guys! So many of us were knocked out, they're starting to break in! We're doing all we can, but get ready for a fight!" the transmission cut after that.

Miku's heart dropped. They were coming here? She quickly told the kid to get everything else out as he could and then leave, as she made her way to the entrance. Everyone who wasn't cleaning out was there too, much to Miku's relief, the more reinforcements, the better.

The second she arrived, the door started banging hard. Everyone jumped, but quickly got into a ready to fight position. Any second now...

 _Bang. Bang._ Shouting. Then nothing. The air was so still, a pin could be heard. Then...

_CRASH!!!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heehoo cliffhanger. sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because I'm such a fucking moron who can't rest on something without changing it entirely, expect to see a few small differences in earlier chapters than what you may have seen before. that's all for now.

The sound of 15 Hunters rushing through the door to the base was one Miku wished she never had to hear. But alas, it was happening right in front of her, as they stormed into the farm base.

The first 3 that ran through were immediately taken care of by Teto and Gumi, as from their hiding places, Teto sunk her harpoon of a tail into their bodies, and Gumi, her entire arm a thin blade, stabbed them deeply. A gruesome sight, yes, but relieving for a little bit, and luckily no small children were there at the time. Then Hunters 4-15 showed up, and the fight truly began.

Fisticuffs engaged with everyone. Miku's pigtails grabbed the arm of one Hunter and broke it, while she punched another one in the gut with her own two fists. Gumi, who appeared from behind, her hand now configured into a knife, stabbed that same Hunter in the back. Quickly, she shook off the blood and continued.

The battle was cramped and musty, but somehow no one from the other rooms managed to get involved. Everyone definitely practiced for a situation like this, Miku thought.

The Hunters that were killed were slumped over in a pile, with the remaining ones still engaged in battle. As Gumi's face changed into a bird's beak, a Hunter jumped her and stabbed her in the arm. Miku yelped at the sight, and immediately ran to help.

Miku ran for a few feet before being stopped by the Hunter that attacked Gumi. However, Miku quickly took care of her as she snapped her neck with her pigtails. After running the rest of the way, Miku crouched down to help lift Gumi up, noticing the small stream of blood dripping out of her hand, which gripped onto the stabbed area.

"Don't worry about me," Gumi strained through her teeth. "I can still move, I'll get to the Infirmary. Just be on your guard." Miku looked around, two other Users were badly injured along with Gumi, but out of the 15 Hunters that raided, only 5 still remained fighting. Miku couldn't help but groan, these ones really were fighters, weren't they?

"Miku! Gumi!" From a couple feet away, SeeU yelled to the duo. "We can handle these guys, you get to safety."

Gumi made a smiling groan as Miku pulled her to her feet, and led her away from the fight. Miku felt a little nervous about not being able to help, but if SeeU wanted her to help Gumi, then help she would.

"I can walk, Miku," Gumi moaned.

"But you're still bleeding," Miku argued. "Let me help, please." With a sigh, Gumi limply held out her unbroken arm, allowing Miku to take it and walk her to the Infirmary.

All the Users that had been knocked out earlier lay on cots, some being treated of their wounds, some just simply resting. The pink haired boy Miku saw earlier was sitting on a hospital cot as the two girls walked in. His arm was in a sling, but the arm itself wasn't bandaged up too heavily. A girl with grey hair in an elaborate ponytail sat next to him to chat, but quickly rose up when she saw Gumi bleeding out.

"Let me get the bandages," she said to the duo, patting the cot next to the pink haired boy. Gumi and Miku took it as a sign and sat down on it.

As the girl came back with a roll of bandages and started to treat Gumi's wound, Miku glanced over at the boy. His face showed no emotion, but his hand not in the sling gripped tightly onto the remote he held earlier.

So as not to squeak the bed, one of Miku's pigtails traveled over and tapped the kid on the head. He turned to see Miku give a comforting smile.

"You ok?" she asked. The boy sighed.

"My arm hurts. But I'm ok," he responded.

"Oh. What happened?"

"I got pushed a lot when we tried to escape. I tried to fly away, but then my shoulder popped and my arm got cut. It doesn't hurt that much now."

"Fly?" Gumi asked, now flexing her arm as the nurse finished the bandage wrap.

"That's what I have," the boy explained, pointing to his feathery pink hair. "I can become a birdie, sorta." Miku and Gumi's mouths became a small o.

"That's pretty neat!" Gumi smiled. "What's your name, kid?"

"Dean."

Just then, a guy with long, black hair poked his head in the doorway. "The Hunters are all gone, those who came for backup are free to leave. We'll help those who are still unconscious, everyone else should make their way to the teleporters to the new hideaway."

A wave of relief came over the infirmary. Gumi and Miku stood up, about to leave.

"Maybe we'll see you later, Dean," Miku said. Dean gave a thumbs up as Miku and Gumi left to regroup and leave.

* * *

Luka led the twins through the double doors, showing off a series of other doors down a long hallway, like it was a corridor of a hotel, but more war like, with the cement walls and floor. On the doors were nameplates that read 'Bunk 1', 'Bunk 2', etc.

"This is where everyone sleeps. Well, those who stay here permanently anyway," Luka gestured. "Some do, some don't, it all depends on their situation." She opened the door to one bunk to see an empty room with two bunk beds on either side of the wall, a girl laying down on one of them.

"Yukari, you ready?" Luka asked. The girl, Yukari, perked her head up. Responding wordlessly, she stood up and joined the others.

"Yukari, this is Rin and Len. Rin, Len, Yukari," Luka introduced. Rin and Len waved hello, while Yukari just walked up to Rin, and proceeded to hug her tight. Rin threw her arms up a little in surprise.

"Thank you for earlier," Yukari whispered.

"Oh, not a problem," Rin replied. "Just wanted to help, ya know?"

"Shall we continue with the tour?" Luka interrupted, her hands clasped together and body turned down the hallway. The three kids looked at each other, then linked arms, following Luka to their next destination.

The gand turned a corner to a set of stairs. After traversing down them, the group ended up at a large gym-looking area. It was boarded off with mattresses on two walls, with one having a see-though door to the next area.

"These are our training facilities. They're used to practice fighting and hone abilities. Because we have so many Users staying here now, we've had to expand a little bit since this place first started up, but that only means more Users who have turned to us for safety, and that's all we can hope for now." Luka walked the group through the various training rooms; some had punching bags and boxing equipment, some had blankets draped over the mattresses, but all of them had at least one beat up training dummy, stuffed with straw and all.

"Here's our dining area, the kitchen is just over there." The room they were inside was like a school cafeteria, with tons of tables and chairs, trash bins with trays stacked upon them, and a bunch of people inside, eating food that smelled like cafeteria food would, but at least a little better.

"You guys hungry?" Luka asked.

"I am a little," Yukari whispered.

"I could get a bite to eat," Rin agreed.

"Sounds good! Let's see what there is then!" Luka gestured to the small line of people. Everyone grabbed tray and lined up. Looking at the chalkboard menu, Rin saw there were turkey sandwiches and pizza for lunch. She decided to order a sandwich.

Once everyone else ordered, they sat down at a table, and started to eat. The second before Rin could take a bite of her sandwich, the doors burst open, showing Miku, Gumi, and a red haired girl from earlier walking through, alongside five other people.

"Hey, they're back!" Len grinned.

"How'd the raid go?" Luka asked, a hint of concern on her face as she noticed Gumi's arm. As though in response, Gumi clenched her other hand around her arm.

"Not too bad," Miku shrugged. "We got rid of the Hunters, and SeeU's group is settling into their new location. I'm starving though." Miku placed a hand on her belly and looked eagerly to the food line.

"Go and grab food. You can tell us more later," Luka said. Miku nodded, and set off to the line with Gumi. After a few minutes, the two returned, trays of food in their hands.

Rin couldn't help but glance occasionally at Miku in between bites. She was quite the interesting person. Very caring, perhaps happy-go-lucky one might say. But then there were her pigtails, the ends of them tinted slightly red. What happened while they were gone, Rin pondered. Luckily, she didn't need to wait to ask, as Gumi, the red haired girl, and Miku started recounting the events of a raid at a different hideout, meeting a kid who had pink feathers for hair, and stopping the Hunters from invading further.

It was now or never. "Hey, Miku?" Rin asked. Miku turned to Rin, her head cocked to the side a little.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Uh, what is it exactly that you have?"

Though Miku's eyes showed surprise at the question, her body language showed she was unfazed. Asking what someone, particularly a User, had was basically asking them their power, or strength, or Ability, depending on who you talked to. It wasn't an uncommon thing to ask, but many Users reacted to the question in different ways, some with disgust, some with glee.

Miku pursed her lips, then took a bite of her pizza, holding up a finger to wait. She swallowed the bite, then responded with,

"I can use my pigtails, or hair in general, as an extension of my body. Think like a tail, but I have two of them!" Miku's pigtails waved hello as though to demonstrate, the strands at the ends of them acting like fingers. It was somewhat surreal to Rin, but she thought it an interesting Ability nonetheless.

"What about you? I know you're the Plant User, but what do you actually have?" Miku asked.

Rin's blood almost instantly ran cold, her throat dry. The only things her mouth released was a series of Ums and Uhs. Miku slumped in her seat a little, noticeably ashamed for asking.

"I don't know," Rin finally responded. The whole table went silent.

"How long have you had your Ability?" Len asked quietly.

"I don't know, like two days?" Rin placed her chin in her hands. Everyone looked at each other, nervous.

"Would it make you feel better if the rest of us said what we had?" Rin looked up to see Gumi leaning forward, her expression and words attempting to reach Rin and make her feel a little better.

It worked, as Rin gave a sad smile and nodded her head.

"I'll go first then," Gumi pointed to herself. "I can shift my whole body into any animal, and parts of my body into weapons. For example, I can make my arm into a sword's blade, or make my legs hard as steel, but I can turn myself into, say, a cat." Everyone nodded in understanding.

"I'll go next," Luka volunteered. "I can hypnotize anyone by singing to them. I accidentally made my voice teacher fall asleep when I first discovered my Ability, heh." A few people chuckled at the story, even Rin couldn't help but smile.

"I'm a chimera," the red haired girl said. "Wings, tail, and that's pretty much it."

"Don't undermine yourself, Teto," Gumi smirked. "There's still a lot you can do with just wings and a tail." Teto playfully rolled her eyes at the comment.

"So, Len, Yukari, yall are up!" Teto exclaimed. Both Len and Yukari fidgeted nervously in their seats. Len picked up his sandwich and quickly took a large bite out of it, Yukari puffed her cheeks and started playing with her hair.

"Ooook, so the atmosphere now is getting awkward," Teto mumbled.

"It's ok, you two," Luka cut in. "You can explain in your own time." Yukari and Len bowed their heads in silent thanks, and continued to eat their lunch. Rin once again, placed her chin in her hand, now taking slower bites of her sandwich until she finished it.

"Hey, Gumi, right?" Rin asked. "Is there a way to leave here?"

Gumi perked up a little. "Oh, yeah, totally! If you could wait, like, maybe five minutes, I'll show you."

Five minutes passed, and as though on cue, Gumi stood up to place her tray on top of a nearby trash bin, gesturing for Rin to join her.

"I'll show you the exit now." Rin started to stand up, but felt her shirt get tugged on as she did. She looked down to see Len, a weak smile on his face.

"You'll come back tomorrow, right?" he asked.

Rin felt her cheeks grow pink. She really wanted to leave for good and just go back to her normal life, but now, remembering her brother who she hadn't seen for years was here, and knowing there were people like her with Abilities, she hadn't even grasped on her own, the only thing she said was,

"I'll think on it."

Len nodded, noticeably sad as Rin walked off with Gumi.

"In case you ever do want to come back, here's my number." Gumi handed a small sheet of paper to Rin, a phone number neatly printed on it. "You don't have to, but just think about it, like you said."

The two neared a large crowd before a metal door, eagerly waiting to get out.

"Here's where you take your leave. It was nice to meet you, Rin," Gumi said.

Rin nodded. "You too."

Just then, the door opened, and the crowd rushed out, through a pair of wooden barn doors. Rin waved a last goodbye before she ran out as well, Gumi's number clutched in her hand.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slightly shorter one this time around. to be honest, I feel like this one was the weirdest thing I had to write, but hey, hopefully it works out. (shrugs nervously)

Rin dashed through the diner, bringing as many trays as she could to the patrons for the lunch rush. She wasn't the only waitress working there, but today, it sure felt like it.

Burgers, sandwiches, fries and drinks, they were all a blur in Rin's hands, she relied on her brain rather than her eyes to give the correct orders to the customers.

Her fellow waiter was kind enough to take half of her orders, so she had the opportunity to swig some water. Her heart was pounding, sweat beaded on her forehead. She tugged on her collar to alleviate some of the heat, and went back into the battlefield.

One by one, the patrons of the diner started to file out, and Rin quickly collected all the tips she could. It was a good bounty she managed to collect, as she stuffed them in the pocket of her apron, hoping her boss wasn't noticing.

As she headed into the kitchen to drop off some serving trays to be washed, she heard the bell ring, signaling a new customer entered the door.

"You get it, Rin," one of Rin's co-workers groaned. With an annoyed exhale, Rin obeyed.

A teenage guy, possibly around 17, walked into the diner looking bored with himself. He ran a hand through his thick, red hair, as he shifted from foot to foot, waiting for a table most likely. Rin dashed up to the front, dusting off her apron.

"Hi, welcome to Corner Diner. Table for one, I assume?" The guy nodded, and followed Rin to a small table near the large window of the restaurant, looking out into the parking lot of the mall. She set a roll of utensils and a menu down as the guy sat in the chair.

"Anything to drink to start?" Rin pulled her notepad out, ready to jot down anything needed. The guy looked down the menu's drink list, then looked up with a grin.

"How about some orange juice, please?" he asked. Rin grimaced.

"Sorry, sir, but we only serve orange juice for breakfast, and we're all out of oranges anyway, and..."

"I said, orange juice," the man repeated, a little more force behind his words this time.

"Sir, I already said, we're out of oranges. We have lemonade though if you'd be ok with that."

"I don't think you heard me. Orange juice, please."

Rin scowled, exhaling briefly out her nose.

"Let me talk to my boss, sir." The man nodded, a smirk on his face. Rin sighed and dashed off to behind the double doors.

"Hey, Mr. Dex?" Rin asked. To her luck, her manager Dex was nearby.

"What's up, Kagamine?" he asked, turning around to face her.

"There's a guy being obnoxious and asking for orange juice. You think you could help me convince him to order a different drink?"

Dex froze.

"He said orange juice? Repeatedly?" he asked, his hands gripping Rin's shoulders. This wasn't a good sign, Rin groaned.

"Yes?' she answered.

Dex mumbled something under his breath, something about how he should've made that part of employee training. He then quickly rummaged in his pockets, pulled out a couple dollar bills, and shoved them into Rin's hands.

"Go to the juicer next door and ask for some oranges. That guy is a Hunter. Orange juice is their sign of making sure restaurants have no Users working for them. Users here or not, he's going to burn this place to the ground if doesn't get the order. Go now." With a gentle push, Dex ushered Rin out the doors of the diner, to the juicer next door.

"So weird this is all for some stinking orange juice. Who's the leader that determined that, a five year old?" Rin grimaced to herself, her legs stretching as far as they'd go to the counter of the juice place, only to see they were closed for a lunch break. Damn it. Rin smacked a hand against her leg, as though to punish herself for forgetting that lunch breaks were a thing. After smacking her hand on her thigh for what felt like the tenth time, she felt a familiar tug as she pulled her hand away. A light bulb suddenly went off in her head. She could only hope the Hunter would allow some more time to be taken so she could enact her plan.

Sneakily, she left the mall to a back alley where trucks usually delivered their supplies. As she guessed, the pavement was lined with patches of dirt. Time to try something new out.

Rin held her breath as she stuck a hand into the soil, letting it encase her. _Please make oranges please make oranges please make oranges,_ she practically begged her Ability to obey. Even in the sunlight, the dirt glowed a noticeable green, before a small sprout emerged from the ground.

 _Yes! Now grow oranges quickly please!_ Rin pleaded. The plant agreeing to her will, grew up and out, sprouting pretty flowers before pushing out, sweet, ripe oranges. Rin managed to stop her hand at three, knowing it would be more than enough.

Letting the oranges fall into her apron which she held up with her free hand, Rin pulled her other hand out of the dirt, shaking off what excess soil might've stuck, before rushing back, praying the Hunter was still there.

"Got the oranges!" Rin gasped, pushing away the door and letting the fruit fall into Dex's hands.

"Wonderful, Rin! Thank god the Hunter's still here. Luna, go squeeze these out." Dex handed the oranges to a chef, gesturing her to the kitchen.

"Now go tell him it's almost ready." Dex patted Rin on the back, nudging her to the door to the diner.

While there were already other patrons there enjoying their meals, the diner still seemed barren when Rin saw the Hunter still sitting at his table, flicking the screen of his tablet. Pushing back her hair and straighening her shoulders, Rin walked up to him.

"My apologies sir, we had to get oranges from a nearby juicer, your orange juice will be ready very soon," she said. The Hunter hand waved it off.

"As long as the orange juice gets here, it's all fine by me." Rin nodded, then headed back behind the doors. Two seconds later, a glass of orange juice was handed to Rin, and placed on the table for the man.

"Awesome, thanks," he said, raising the glass towards Rin before taking a sip. "Now, about my food..."

"Ah, yes. Have you decided already?" she asked, pulling out her notepad and pen. But when she looked up to expect an order, the Hunter seemed to have other things on his mind.

"Uh, sir? Is everything ok?" she asked.

"No, it's just... this orange juice," he replied.

"Oh? What about it?"

"It's very sweet. Was anything added to this?"

"Oh, no sir. Just oranges and other stuff you'd normally find in this drink."

"You're sure? It doesn't taste like any orange juice I've had here before."

 _What the hell is up with the guy?_ Rin tapped her pen on her notepad anxiously. "Again, the oranges were taken from the juicer next door, so that's most likely why." The Hunter shrugged.

"I suppose." He took another sip. "You know about that guy? Murdered a few days ago, supposedly by a User?"

Rin's blood ran cold from the question. "I do, in fact. Why do you ask?"

"Do you remember what the User was suspected of having? Ability, I mean?"

Rin wasn't happy where this was going. "Plant, yes, I heard the news, sir."

"You wouldn't happen to think that juicer was that User, no?"

Rin froze. She had split seconds to consider throwing the innocent juicer under the bus for this. Alas, her mouth moved faster than her brain.

"Actually, the juicer just went on a lunch break, so..."

The Hunter wasn't amused. "I asked if you think they grew those oranges with their Ability, not where they are now."

"No, I don't believe so, sir."

"Then how are these oranges so sweet? Who might've grown them? You? Your boss?"

"Sir, I'm going to ask you to please stop harassing my employee with questions before things get serious." Rin turned to see Dex striding up to her side. Yes, finally!

The Hunter stared at the two of them, then took one long, last sip of the drink before slamming it down.

"I'll stop then. But if I suddenly find out someone was collaborating with a User..." He didn't finish his sentence, he just left a wad of money on the table and left.

"You ok?" Dex asked. Rin bit her lip.

"I..." Rin wanted to say so much. But she couldn't. Dex seemed to know she was still uneasy.

"Tell you what. I'll let you off a little early, Kagamine. Thank you for doing this." He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder before heading off to lead a couple to a table.

Rin sighed in relief, as she clocked out and put away her uniform in exchange for her casual clothes, realizing she still pocketed the money Dex lent her for the oranges. _It won't hurt him,_ she then thought, leaving the diner much more relaxed than previously.

As she walked home, the conversation with the Hunter replayed over and over in her head. He couldn't have been leading on that he thought she grew the oranges, right? Was he joking with her? Rin gripped her backpack strap more and more tightly as the questions the man asked plagued her brain. She doubted the lack of oranges would ever happen again, but if it did, and they caught on... Rin squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to think about the consequences that could befall her, or even the diner.

A few blocks before her apartment, her mind now wandered to the slip of paper Gumi lent her. Rin could call her at any time. But did she want to? Was now a good time? Rin gritted her teeth, pondering through her options.

Rin settled on an idea the second she felt secure enough in her apartment. She pulled out her cell, and typed in the number Gumi gave her. A few rings, and a voice was on the other line.

"Gumi speaking, what's up?" Rin smiled a little hearing that voice again.

"Hey Gumi, it's Rin. Thought I should let you know on some stuff that happened today."

"Is everything good? Are you ok? What happened?" Rin clearly detected panic in Gumi's questions, and chuckled them off. "It's alright now, I thought I'd just tell you about my day."

"Oh. Why?"

"Well, I work at this diner in a mall, and..."

The line was silent the entire time Rin recalled her encounter with the Hunter, the orange juice, her Ability, and the questions at the end. Gumi sounded like she wasn't even breathing by the time Rin was finished. A few seconds passed, then,

"Do you think he knows?"

"I hope not. I'm nervous what might happen to me or my coworkers if he finds out. That's why I called. I debated this as I walked home, but...

"I'm ready to come back. Train me."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a little simple section like last time. don't worry, more things will happen in the future!

Rin stood in front of the gate to the docks, her phone pressed up against her ear. The sunset loomed in front of her, covering the area in evening light.

"Alright, I'm here Gumi. What now?" she asked. Gumi, on the other end of the conversation, replied with,

"Go through the gate. You'll see a boat on a pier that says, 'Crypton'. Go to that pier." Rin looked around, until she saw the boat Gumi described. It indeed, read "Crypton" in big black letters, bobbing up and down on the bay below.

"At the pier," Rin whispered now, for fear of anyone noticing her.

"There's a stack of crates to the right of the boat. Smack the top of the pink one three times, not loud though."

Rin immediately turned to the collection of wooden crates. At the very right, sat a light pink crate, not that noticeable in terms of color, but enough Rin pointed it out. With her free hand, Rin hit the top three times. Suddenly, the big, rectangular crate at the bottom creaked and groaned, as though whatever it contained was ready to burst out.

"Uh, the crate just did a thing," Rin trembled. Gumi gave a soft chuckle from the other end of the line.

"That's fine, it means you did it. Hop inside that crate, I'll meet you on the other end." Before Rin could protest or question what Gumi just said, the click of the phone signaled that Gumi hung up. Silently cursing, Rin opened the lid of the large box.

It seemed safe enough to head down, Rin thought. It had to be, right? Without a second thought, Rin climbed in and took the plunge, bracing herself for any possible impact.

Instead, she landed on what appeared to be a winding slide, like the ones at a playground that little kids love so much. Rin herself couldn't help but whisper a "whee" as she slid down to the bottom. She landed on a pile of pillows and couch cushions, with blankets circled around them. Rin chuckled at the cute sight before standing up to dust herself off. This certainly was a different place than the one she woke up in a few days ago, but somehow still the same nonetheless.

There was a small gate that Rin had to exit, then she begin to search for Gumi. The room seemed to be like the living room she saw earlier, but smaller, and just a living room. Couches were everywhere surrounding tables, TVs on the walls, some even had video game consoles attached to them, with little kids playing various kart racers and party games.

"Rin!" Rin swiveled around to see Gumi calling her name from one of the far off couches. Rin waved a hello as she headed up to where Gumi sat, and then sat down next to her.

"Glad to see you back," Gumi greeted.

"Thanks for letting me come back," Rin said. "Where to?"

"Just waiting for Miku and Luka to show up, then we can start working on your Ability. Until then, you thirsty?"

Two smoothies were delivered to the table after a minute. Rin was surprised by the sudden delivery, but still took a gentle sip of hers, only to find it was delicious. Strawberries, blueberries, peaches, a bit of yogurt mixed in. This was better than anything she saw at the mall food court. Rin could also see Gumi chuckling at her enjoyment from the corner of her eye.

"Glad you like it."

At that moment, Rin jumped up in her seat, spilling a little bit of her smoothie, but not on purpose. She looked to the side to see Miku and Luka promptly plopped down on the couch, big grins on their faces.

"Gumi told us you wanted to starting learning on handling your Ability," Luka said. "I'm happy to take you back whenever you're ready."

"Back where?" Rin asked quietly.

"The training rooms, silly!" Miku giggled. "Didn't Luka show you them on the tour?" Rin just took one last sip of her smoothie, her eyes glaring off to the side, as though to say, 'Yeah I totally knew that'.

"Well, actually I should rephrase," Luka commented. "I don't mean the training rooms, Rin. I'll show you when you're ready." One gulp later, Rin was already standing.

"Better now than never," she sighed, a nervous smile crossed her face. Luka stood up with Miku, the two of them smiling as well.

"Let's go then." Luka and Miku led Rin away from the lounge area, down a corridor Rin wasn't familiar with, but she could feel the air getting warmer as they walked. Finally, they stopped in front of a pair of sliding glass doors. Rin could see dozens of plants inside.

"Here we are, the greenhouse. This is where we grow most of the food we eat down here," Luka explained. "A good place to start, wouldn't you think?" Rin nodded as she looked around.

The walls of the greenhouse were stacked to the ceiling with rows of various plants and crops. Potted flowers, cacti, and succulents decorated part of the back wall, the rest was filled with root vegetables like turnips and carrots.

"So... why are we here again?" Rin asked.

"Well, I thought since most of your Ability is making plants grow, you could try to make some grow here. Starting here." Luka stepped over to an empty pot, filled with soil.

"What do you know how to grow first? We can start there." She handed the pot over to Rin, which the girl took within her arms. Rin pursed her lips in thought.

"Hold on," she whispered, sticking a hand into the soil. She squeezed her eyes shut.

 _Okay hand, I want you to grow me an orange plant, just like last time. A big, juicy orange. You can do it, so please?_ Rin pleaded. After a few seconds, her hand started to tingle and shake, accompanied with the sound of Luka gasping. When Rin opened her eyes, a small vine, with a big, single orange at the end of it.

"Who says oranges don't grow on trees?" Rin could hear Luka whisper under her breath. When the pink haired woman noticed Rin was finished, she jumped in place a little, and gestured to the orange.

"That's awesome, Rin! And it's edible?" In response, Rin took her hand out of the soil -still not used to the feeling of the small stalks retreating into her hand- and then grabbed the orange off the vine, tossing it in Luka's direction. Almost cautiously, Luka peeled the orange and took a bite of a slice. Not even chewing it for a second, her eyes widened and her mouth twisted into a grin.

"This is so good, Rin! You could do so much with this Ability, you know? This could help so many people in the world!" she squealed through a full mouth. Rin nodded, her face smiling nervously, almost in embarrassment.

"Can you grow anything else?" Luka dashed over to a second soil filled pot, taking the first one out of Rin's hands.

Rin scratched the back of her head. "Eh, I never really tried. Most I've done is standard vines and oranges."

"Well, that's why we're here. We're going to test your limits to see what you can grow and how much," Luka explained as she set three large, clay pots on an iron table.

"Let's start with something simple. A flower of your choosing, but make it as big as you can." Rin walked up to the first pot and stuck her hand inside.

 _Ok then, how about a nice big daisy? One as big as my head!_ Rin thought, her eyes focused on her hand in the pot this time. The tingly feeling from last time happened, her hand froze up, and suddenly, a sprout appeared from the soil, growing up and up, the stalk growing bigger and thicker, the bud growing to the size of Rin's head, just like she willed it. When the flower blossomed, Rin could feel a cloud of pollen smack her in the face, causing her to sneeze a bunch until her nose was red. Luka giggled off to the side.

"Sorry, Rin. But that is really cool! Ok, what's next... how about a big fruit? And don't do an orange!"

Rin stuck her tongue out of her mouth, thinking deeply. With a twitch of her hand, she let it out of the first plant pot and into the moist soil of the second one.

 _Let's try a good ol fashioned melon! Big, juicy watermelon!_ Rin wished. To her surprise, the pot ended up shattering as the watermelon grew out of the dirt. On the one hand, it was huge, which was extremely cool, and seemed to make Luka all the more amazed. On the other hand, aside from the broken pot, Rin got a good look at what her hand was like when it was growing this stuff, and it was a little freaky to say the least. All her fingers were green and elongated, being the vines of the watermelon if you looked far enough. She yelped in disgust, shaking around her hand like it had a spider on it.

"You alright?" Luka asked, walking to Rin's side, looking at her hand as it turned back to normal. Rin gulped.

"Yeah, I'm fine now," Rin answered. "Last pot."

"Oh, yeah, last pot. Um, how about a carnivorous plant? A Venus flytrap! No need to make it big." Rin cocked her head at the request.

"What's a Venus flytrap?" she inquired. Luka stared at her for a few moments.

"Oh! Sorry, let me pull one up, hold on. Uh... here! This is a Venus flytrap!" Luka held out her phone to Rin, which held a picture of an odd looking plant with what looked like an open mouth, all pink on the inside and pointy bits on the edge that looked like little teeth.

"They look like a normal plant, until a fly or anything really touches the pink of the 'mouth' inside. Then it closes its mouth, trapping the fly to eat it," Luka explained. Rin nodded through the whole thing, already prepping her hand to go into the pot.

This time, she only had to think about a flytrap for it to appear out of the dirt, mouth open and ready to chomp on some flies. Luka clapped eagerly.

"So cool!" she whispered, before quickly regaining her composure. "Well, we know some very cool things now. Let's head to one of the training rooms now, for real this time. I wanna test something."

Luka and Rin started to walk out of the greenhouse, when Rin noticed a wilted lily in one of the far off pots. Almost subconsciously, Rin headed over to it and lifted up the flower petals, a sad smile on her face. She was about to turn away and continue to follow Luka, when out of the corner of her eye, she saw the flower change. Its brown color now became a bright white amongst its petals, its stem a luscious green as well as its leaf. Rin stared at the lily in disbelief. She did that? Did she actually bring a flower back to life by just touching it?

"Uh Luka?" Rin's question contained a hint of panic. Luka turned around to see Rin looking at a lily in pure terror.

"You ok Rin?"

"I just made that flower come back to life." Though Rin kept staring at the flower like it would murder her the second she turned her back, the sound of hastened footsteps were prominent in her ear.

"That flower was previously dead," Luka muttered. "Hold on." Luka ran off to grab another pot that contained a wilted flower, and set it next to the lily plant.

"Try this one," she said. Rin directed her attention to the new pot. Cautiously, she reached out to tap the only petal that was still intact. It took a few seconds, but soon enough, the flower grew back the once gone petals, its colors turned more vibrant than the lily's. Rin made a confused yell, but Luka became deep in thought.

"It's not just plants," she whispered under her breath. Rin turned to her.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Luka tapped her chin.

"It would go with... oh dear."

"What the hell are you saying, Luka?" Rin's breathing became more shallow, her face a mixture of befuddlement and anxiety. Luka turned to Rin, an almost fearful look crossed her eyes.

"Rin, I think you might actually have a Life Ability."


	7. Chapter 7

"You're sure?"

"Positive. Given the connection, it makes sense. She has a Life Ability."

Luka, Miku, and Gumi were all sitting down in their bunk, discussing what happened with Rin in the greenhouse. Miku and Gumi had heard Luka's recounting of the events with content, then downright shock.

"I don't wanna say this isn't good, but... it's certainly something," Miku said, running her hands through one of her pigtails.

"So you're going to train her more?" Gumi asked, slipping a light button-up sweater over her tank top.

"That's what I hope I can do," Luka replied. "Also, where are you planning to go?" Gumi turned around just as she was about to leave the room.

"Checking on the others," she answered, opening the door to leave.

"Tell them I said hi!" Miku said. Gumi nodded before leaving the room, the door thudding closed behind her.

Yukari, Rin, and Len all shared a bunk room, with Teto offering to sleep with them for a couple nights, just so they had a familiar face around. When Gumi opened the door to their room, the atmosphere seemed lighter than she was expecting. They were all playing cards, Yukari possibly winning due to the sheer amount of joy on her face compared to everyone else.

"How's things been going?" Gumi inquired. Everyone looked up to see the green haired woman in the doorway.

"Hey Meg!" Teto greeted. "Just playing some Old Maid with the kids."

"Teto, we're literally all a year younger than you," Len sighed. "And you're 17, so what does that say?" Teto smiled the comment off.

"Oh pish posh. Anyways, what're you up to, Gumi?"

"Just wanted to see how you guys were doing. Clearly, it seems everyone is doing well." Everyone nodded in agreement, even Rin seemed content.

"Anything else?" Teto asked. Gumi shook her head.

"Nothing else."

"You're sure? You don't want any of us to come with you for something?" Gumi tapped her chin, looking at each person in the room with her.

"Actually, I wanted to chat with Yukari for a few minutes. I hope you don't mind." Yukari looked almost frightened at the request, slowly putting down her cards and standing up.

"It's ok, I won't bite. I just wanted to ask you a few things," Gumi assured. She waved a hand for Yukari to join her. Gingerly, Yukari stepped across everyone else and stood by Gumi in the doorway.

"We won't be long. And also, lights out everyone," Gumi smiled, closing the door behind the two of them, ignoring the groans from inside.

"Follow me." Gumi led Yukari all the way to a lone training room that sat at the end of the hall. It merely contained a few targets on the walls, and a long table with chairs in a corner. It seemed calm enough, but the flickering, dim lights and odd buzzing noise from far away was enough to make Yukari feel uneasy.

"Come sit with me," Gumi said, already at the table. She sat down in one of the chairs, and patted the chair nearest her. Yukari walked up to the table, but stood there, frozen. Gumi smiled warmly at her.

"Hey, I told you I won't hurt you. I just wanna talk with you for a little bit. Then you can go back to Teto and the others and sleep, I promise." Yukari clenched her fists, her body trembling.

"That's what they said," she murmured. Gumi felt like she didn't need to ask to know Yukari was talking about the Hunters, but the anger in her voice hinted at someone else, but Gumi didn't want to pry.

"I know I can't do much else, but you have to trust me when I say I will not harm you if you sit down next to me. You can come over when you're ready."

Yukari stood at the table a minute longer, then slumped over to the seat next to the green haired woman.

"Thank you. I just wanted to ask you a few questions, some are about your Ability," Gumi explained. Yukari visually tensed up, just like last time when Rin was around. Gumi exhaled slowly through her nose.

"It's ok, I just want to start simple. How did you figure out you were a User?" Yukari opened her mouth, but no words escaped. A minute passed, then...

"My parents knew. They had my Ability." Gumi's heart jumped a little at Yukari's use of past tense, but again, she didn't want to ask those questions.

"Ok, let's move on. What Ability did your parents have?"

"What does it matter? They couldn't use it to save themselves! They couldn't use it to save me! After they were killed, I was constantly on the run from the Hunters. They died and then they left me to die!"

The response came so quickly, Gumi was still trying to think of how to react. Yukari spiraled into sobs as soon as she finished her rant, leaving the green haired woman still speechless.

The two of them sat in an undying silence, the only thing breaking it being Yukari's crying into her hands. Gumi stared down at her lap, half ashamed for asking what she did in the first place, and half processing what Yukari said. Did she dare to ask her other question?

"Where were you living before you joined us?" she whispered. Yukari glared Gumi from between her fingers, but groaned.

"Alleyways most of the time. Another base once, it was really small. Then it got raided. Then it was back to the alley."

Gumi and Yukari continued to sit in silence for a while, the air heavy and tense. Then Gumi got an idea.

"Hey Yukari. Just one more question. What's your favorite animal?" she asked. Yukari looked up, her face red and puffy.

"B-bunnies," she sniffed. Gumi made a small noise, and stood up.

"I'll be right back," she said. She pushed in her chair, and walked out of the room. Yukari stared at the door, wondering what Gumi was doing now. What was she planning? Why did she ask that?

Suddenly, there was a muffled knocking against the door. A tiny voice sang, "Yukari... I got a surprise for you!"

Hesitantly, Yukari stood up, brushing a pigtail over her shoulder, and walked to the door. She opened it up to find a little green bunny sitting there, smiling at the purple haired girl.

"Miss Gumi?" was all she said. The bunny nodded. Yukari's eyes flooded with tears, her hands clasped over her mouth.

"Thank you," she whispered, now holding her hands to the floor for Gumi to hop into. She cradled the green bunny in her arms, rocking it side to side while humming to herself. She stood there like that for quite a while, occasionally shifting the bunny to one arm so she could pet its back or stroke its ears. Gumi closed her eyes, happy that she could make Yukari happy. The soft humming was stopped when the tiny voice from much earlier squeaked out,

"You can keep rocking me, but let's get you back to bed Yukari."

The girl yawned, then shifted Gumi to one arm so she could rub her eyes with the other. With slumping steps, Yukari walked out of the training room and down the hall, back to her bunk room. Quietly, she creaked open the door, the dim lights flooding in to see Rin, Len, and Teto sound asleep, the cards scattered on the floor.

Yukari sat down on the bunk below Teto's, still swaying Gumi from side to side. With a final yawn, she set the green bunny on the floor, and crawled under the covers.

"Goodnight, Miss Gumi," Yukari whispered.

* * *

Quick like a... well, a bunny, Gumi ran out of the room and down the hall once more. She didn't stop running until she hit the training room at the end of the hall, where outside the door, she folded up her clothes into a neat stack. She was already halfway through shifting back to normal as she tugged on her tank top, then tied up her sweater, and finally her undergarments and shorts when she was all done transforming.

She tapped her chin as she walked back down the hall for the final time, then turned a corner to get to her own bunk. Her chat with Yukari was brief, but she at least knew somethings. For instance, if she could figure out Yukari's parents' Abilities, then she'd know Yukari's. Now the only thing was how to get that information.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps from far off. Judging that Gumi was close to the slide by the lounge area, she assumed someone was running on the docks above them. Then she became nervous as a faint creaking sound rang through the room. It meant someone was coming down.

Hastily, Gumi stood in front of the slide, her hand shifted into a pistol, shaking and ready to fire if need be. The slide squeaked as someone came down, and Gumi's breath hitched.

A little boy with pink feathers for hair arrived at the bottom of the slide, his body and face bruised and cut up. Gumi's pistol instantly changed back to her hand when she realized.

"Dean?" was all she got out before the boy jumped up and hugged her legs tightly, sobbing into them. She placed a hand on his back as the next person came down, which turned out to be a girl with blue robes and an elaborate ponytail, the nurse from the other base, Gumi remembered.

Three more people showed up; A girl with icy blue hair and fox ears who wore a white tank top, blue skirt, and purple boots; A woman with long, pink hair and light brown skin, wearing a red halter top and black shorts, with a black jacket and red sneakers; And a woman with slightly lighter skin than the previous woman, boyish-cut brown hair, a red shirt with black shorts and a black vest, and cowgirl boots. Everyone looked beaten up.

"What are you doing here?" Gumi asked, extremely confused. The girl with the ponytail and the blue robes walked forth, limping on one leg, her breaths shallow. Her voice was a whisper when she finally spoke.

"The base got raided again. There was a mole. Everyone's gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> many thanks to mahoustar for letting me use their oc, Kit!


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning arrived, though not quickly enough in Gumi's opinion. She allowed everyone from the other base to sleep in an empty bunk room for the night until they could figure out what the situation was in full. During breakfast, they all sat together at a table, with Miku, Luka, Teto and the rest of her bunk at another table.

"So run it by me again, just because things were really hectic last night. What happened at the base?" Gumi questioned.

"Things were going fine in the new base. We were all settled in, people were training, that sort of stuff," the nurse, Tianyi, started off. "Suddenly, there was a banging noise at the porthole. So some of us went to open it to see who was there, thinking someone was just trying to get in, or maybe the door was stuck or something."

"Suddenly, all these Hunters come rushing in!" the brown haired woman, Clara, exclaimed. "It was insane, none of them should've known how to get in like that unless someone had told them."

"We fought as many off as we could, but in the end, we had to escape," the pink haired woman, Ruby, continued. "I managed to find Dean hiding and brought him with, then we managed to join up with Tianyi and Clara. Then we found Kit hiding as well," she jabbed a thumb at the girl with the icy blue hair, who waved hello, "and we brought her with us. We managed to escape with Clara's Ability, but just barely."

"What about SeeU? Yanhe? Bruno? Uni?" Miku seemed to almost plead. There was a lingering silence, then...

"They're all gone," Clara sighed, twisting her earrings. "We don't know if they escaped like us, or died, but they're gone."

Miku slumped down in her seat, tear drops flowing down her face. Luka reached over to rub her back.

"Are you able to contact any of them? Even SeeU?" Luka asked.

"You think we'd be able to, but all communications were cut. We can only contact each other and you guys," Ruby answered, rubbing Dean's shoulder as he leaned on her.

"That's really awful, guys," Luka said. "But I'm glad you managed to make it out."

"Thanks, Luka."

Kit eventually left to find her friend (or sister, she never really specified) Tsuki, so Miku decided to fill Kit's empty seat, with Teto filling Miku's seat. Slowly, everyone began to finish their breakfast and set their trays away.

"So... what do you guys plan to do now?" Miku inquired.

"I guess we're sticking with you now," Clara responded. "We're happy to do whatever we can to fight with you guys."

"Ah, yes. Speaking of," Tianyi stood up, "Could any of you point to your guys' infirmary? I'd like to get started over there."

"You sure? You can stay here a little longer if you want," Teto said.

"Thanks, but I really would like to help any way I can, and I thought I should start with what I know."

Miku stood up. "I'll take you there. Just follow me."

* * *

Miku's muscles tensed up as she led Tianyi to the hospital wing, her mind still processing all of the information from breakfast. Who was the mole? Is anyone else still alive?

_Why couldn't she have done anything to help?_

"Miku? You ok?" It took Miku a few seconds to realized she was crying. Subtly, she turned around to face Tianyi.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Just lost in my thoughts a little bit." Tianyi nodded, her face blank. Miku turned around and kept walking, until they finally reached the doorway.

"Well, here we are. Mizki can show you around. Mizki!"

At the sound of their name called, a person covered in white robes with messy blue hair turned around to see Miku and Tianyi. They smiled and ran over'

"Hey Miku! Who's this with you?" Mizki greeted.

"Hi! This is Tianyi, she was a nurse at another base before... stuff happened," Miku said.

"Our base got raided and destroyed because of a traitor," Tianyi explained, a hand outstretched. "Nice to meet you Mizki."

Mizki took the hand and shook it, grinning. "Likewise. Here, let me show you what we have in this joint." With that, they led Tianyi behind a curtain at a far off wall, leaving Miku standing idly. Remembering she still had food to finish, she started to run back to the cafeteria. When she arrived back, the mood seemed less tense, as everyone from both tables chatted with each other and laughed. Miku smiled a little, sitting down in an empty seat next to Dean.

"You doing ok?" she asked the kid as he took a bite of oatmeal. Spoon still in his mouth, he looked up at her and nodded. Playfully, Miku ruffled his hair.

"You'll love it here kiddo," she giggled, then leaned down to whisper into his ear. "I'll even show you where they hide the best ice cream!" Smiling, Dean pumped a fist, spitting the spoon out of his mouth back into his bowl. Ruby let out a huff, leaning back into her chair. Clara chuckled, rubbing the woman's shoulder before looking back at the child.

"Hey Dean, isn't it time we start your flight lesson?" she asked. Dean leaped out of his chair, his eyes almost sparkling.

"Yeah yeah yeah! Let's go!" Come on Miss Miku!" Dean grabbed Miku's hand and dragged her out of the cafeteria, Ruby and Clara following close behind, leaving everyone else to finish their breakfast.

"We're just losing people on the reg now, eh?" Teto joked. After receiving not much of a response, the chimera turned back to the other table.

"So, Rin, how'd your training go with Luka?" she inquired. Rin up until this point had been poking around at her waffle, watching it soak up all the syrup she'd poured earlier. Her body froze a little when Teto asked the question she'd been anticipating since yesterday.

"Oh, uh, not awful all things considered. Grew a melon, learned about carnivorous plants, it was cool."

"Cool, cool." Teto didn't ask further questions, and so Rin simply went back to moving her breakfast around.

"Hey, are you going to eat that?" Yukari asked, pointing at Rin's food. "You might want to, you haven't really eaten at all yet."

Rin just shoved her plate towards Yukari. "Nah, not really hungry today. You can eat it." If Yukari was surprised by Rin's answer, she didn't show it as she took the plate and started gobbling down the food.

"So... what have you been up to?" Rin asked Len. He looked up from his empty plate.

"Like, recently or?" he said.

"I guess just since you came here," she added. "What cool things have you done?"

"That's going back to when I was like, five. But... I do remember meeting Miku and Luka back then. Miku was about my age, and Luka was around nine or ten. They brought me to this complex in the first place after I ran away. I remember they showed me around, helped me out with my Ability. I couldn't have asked for better friends really."

"I'm just glad you weren't completely alone. I'm happy to know you're ok after all these years."

"Thanks. That reminds me, what have you been up to after all these years?" Rin tensed up again at the question, smiling nervously.

"Uh, I've been on my own for a few years now, mom kinda...sorta died when I was 14. Car crash."

"Oh god, that's awful."

"I'm so sorry," Yukari added. Rin exhaled through her nose.

"Yeah. Luckily I managed to get a job at a diner and stay in the house for a little bit. Then I found a youth apartment complex and have been staying there since. The rest is history."

"Well, if you ever want to chat about it more, I'm happy to listen," Len said, placing a closed fist on Rin's hand. Rin smiled sweetly at the gesture.

"Thanks Len. Oh, whatever happened to dad?"

Len's face sunk even deeper. "He died too." Rin's smile faded.

"Well then, you're free to tell me about it as well, if you'd want to that is." Rin looked down at her and Len's hands, and realized that Len had been wearing leather gloves on his hands. Not even fingerless, they were full on leather gloves.

"Cool gloves," she commented.

"Thanks, Luka gave me these as a gift," Len explained.

"How long have you been wearing those?"

"Couple years now."

"And your hands don't feel weird from wearing those for so long?"

"Not at all. I take them off sometimes, I just kinda... like to wear these, you know?"

"Yeah, totally."

The conversation ended there. After everyone finally finished their food, Len, Rin, and Yukari went back to their bunk to hang out while Teto, Gumi, and Luka attended to important businesses. After hearing about the other hideout getting destroyed, the next plan of action was to figure out which legion of Hunters was responsible. After some quick deduction on Gumi's laptop, the trio narrowed the legions down to near the base, as well as the city nearby.

"So judging by the locations we know, it's either Hunter Legion 15 here, or 18 here," Luka said, pointing to a set of dots on the screen.

"18 might make more sense, they have a lot of good technology compared to the other one, it'd be easier for them to have found the location of the hideout and communicate with the mole," Teto commented. "So, we gonna blast their shebang apart then?"

"I'll show the plan to Meiko and Kaito, see if they can share it with Lola and put teams together," Gumi said, closing her laptop and walking off.

"I'd bet my life Tsuki and Kit want to be a part of the attack squad," Luka muttered to herself. "After knowing what happened, Kit would want to help, and Tsuki would want to help her. Those two are like they're conjoined at the hip."

"Got something to share with the class?" Teto snapped the woman out of her thoughts.

"Oh, no, just planning teams." Luka looked away and continued thinking to herself about who was likely to help out. Whatever the case may have been, Rin, Len, and Yukari couldn't be a part of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks once again to mahoustar for letting use their oc Kit, and also to Draconia1011 for letting me use their character, Tsukiyomi!


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey, seems like our proposal worked, Lu!" Teto exclaimed, pointing to an email on her phone. Luka stared at it; the email was from Lola and sent to at least a dozen people in their base, Luka and Teto included.

Teams were set for the raid of the Hunter base; among the dozen people listed per group, Group One included Luka and Gumi, while Teto and Miku were on Group Two.

"Congrats, dude." Teto patted Luka lightly on the back. But as Luka scrolled through the rest of the second group, her eyes were fixed on one name that sat there.

Kagamine Len was in Group Two.

"What cha staring at?" Teto asked, looking at where Luka now pointed to.

"Oh, Len's in my group? Sweet! His first one too! Should I tell him?"

"I... I don't know. I know Len can't keep training forever, but I don't want to see him get hurt, or... go ahead and tell him Teto." Luka hung her head a little, as though defeated from her inside battle.

"Hey, if you, me, Miku and Gumi are gonna be with him, he'll be perfectly fine! Have some trust in the kid! Anyway, we have some time until the raid; I'll go find him, you keep reading and let the others know." With that, Teto skipped off from the lounge to the bunk rooms, leaving Luka sitting in a chair, alone. Her eyes didn't lose track of Teto until she completely disappeared, with one thought plaguing her mind.

_It's not who he's with that I'm worried about._

* * *

"Oh Lenny..." Teto called sweetly as she opened the door to his bunk. Empty. She frowned, then closed the door to search for him elsewhere. She made her way to the game room, a small room with a couple emulator consoles and controllers. The room sat so far away from the bunks that her legs grew extremely tired, to the point she broke out her wings to fly over there.

"Len! Len!" she shouted amid the noise. On a couch, Len and Rin stared at the TV as Yukari played a puzzle game on a console. Tetris, Teto believed. Smiling, she hovered over to where they all sat.

"How far?" she whispered to Len.

"So far," he answered. He wasn't wrong. Yukari was at level 10, the point where the blocks blazing by on screen. The girl's eyes seemed like they didn't even blink, and her mouth was pursed as she watched the blocks fall into place. After a minute of watching, Teto remembered why she showed up in the first place."

"Hey, come with me. I got some big news for you," she whispered into Len's ear. Slowly, the two of them shuffled away out of the room, with Rin and Yukari hardly noticing.

"So, what's the news?" Len asked once they left.

"You're on a team!" Teto squealed, grabbing his hands. Len's jaw dropped to the floor, his eyes wide as saucers.

"You'll be with me and Miku for a raid mission! You excited?" Teto exclaimed. Len did nothing but nod in agreement.

"We're getting ready in a few hours, but I thought I'd let you know ahead of time. You wanna discuss more of it with us?"

"What about Rin and Yukari?"

"They weren't listed. Probably just because they're still new to the hideout, I wouldn't feel too bad. Come on." Teto hovered off the ground again, and led Len to a meeting room, where Miku, Gumi, and Luka, along with Tsukiyomi and Kit, were discussing plans for the raid.

"I mean, I think if we send like, one or two people to steal some tech from their lab while the rest of us are fighting, we could easily find out the main homebase for the whole operation!" Tsukiyomi exclaimed.

"That could work, but what if they notice? There could be guards positioned at the lab for all you know," Gumi countered.

"Kit and I could take em down no problem though! Right, Kit?" Tsukiyomi nudged the shoulder of the kitsune girl next to her, who nodded vigorously. Gumi sighed.

"Let's leave this at 'we'll see'. Anyway, Teto! Len! Nice to see you two, come sit down. We've just started discussing action plans."

"What have we got so far?" Teto asked.

Luka scrolled through her phone, squinting at what she wrote down. She then let out a sigh and put her head in her hands.

"We've got nothing," she cried. "Everything we've thought of, there was always some drawback, some chance it won't go well from the start."

"That's nothing too new though Luka," Miku said. "There's always been plans we had that never went too well, even with raids like this."

"Yeah but according to Lola, this base is much different. It's so much closer to the higher ups, even the head capital or, whatever than we thought. This one has higher stakes. Whatever plan we come up with, it's got to succeed."

"Hey, we're putting our heads together. We'll have something to share by the time we go out, I'm sure of it," Gumi assured as she rubbed Luka's back.

"I've got something," Len said. "Since the base is pretty high tech, there's a chance it'll have security cameras, or something that will make it harder for us to break in. What if someone went in as a spy, and find how to shut off the security and let everyone else in?"

The room was silent.

"That could work," Luka whispered, then louder, "Who would go in though? And how?"

Len looked down at the table, then smirked.

"I may have an idea."

* * *

"Well, it's time. Let's get ready and go. You have what you need, Len?" Luka asked as she walked down the corridor with Len, down to the portholes to leave for their mission.

"My outfit's already on Luka, and the device is in my pocket," Len replied, patting the front pocket of his torn up sweatpants. He also wore a baggy red hoodie, with the sleeves hanging over his hands.

"And you're sure you know what you're doing?"

"Yes. I won't have to use my Ability, I know what I have to do, I'll be perfectly fine. They'll have no clue Luka."

"I just don't want you to get hurt, or worse. But I'm willing to trust you on this."

"Thanks, Luka."

Finally, the two arrived at Porthole V4, where Group Two was stationed.

"Well, this is your stop. Good luck out there," Luka said, already walking away to Group One's porthole, V2. Len watched her leave until she disappeared through the door, then looked at his own porthole. With a deep breath, he walked through.

At least 10 other people were inside, including Miku and Teto, who were already prepared for the fight ahead.

"Hey Len! You excited?" Miku cheered, tugging on her hair ties. Her pigtails both gave a thumbs up in Len's direction.

"Heh, yeah, I guess," Len chuckled, scratching his head.

"You should be! Don't worry, we'll have your back the whole way," Teto said, flexing her wings.

"Come and sit down," Miku added, patting an open seat between herself and Teto. "We're just waiting for Lola to give the full briefing now."

Len shuffled over and plonked himself down, tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves to pass the time. The more he waited, the more anticipation filled up in his mind.

Seeming to read the boy like a book, Miku rubbed him on the back. "Hey, you'll do great, Len. Don't worry. And if you're worrying about Rin and Yukari, Gumi already told them about your mission. They were pretty happy for you."

"Thanks," Len whispered.

"Oh, by the way, you'll need these. Communication stuff." Miku handed Len a pair of earbuds. Well, they actually looked more like foam earplugs, like what you might wear on an airplane. They were both round and small, and fit perfectly into Len's ears. Miku opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by the TV screen flashing, showing Lola once again.

"Alright everyone, today is an important day. We've found out where the Hunter setup was that attacked one of our bases a week or two ago. So, we're going to infiltrate it and get some revenge." The group cheered.

"Your game plan is this," Lola declared. "Since the base is guarded by a shield and various other security, Kagamine Len will disguise himself as a poor kid who wants to join the Hunters. He'll get into the base and find out how to turn off the security. After he does that, he'll give Megurine Luka from Group One, and Utatane Piko from Group Two the signal, at which everyone will work together to storm the base. As I said, Piko is your guys' leader, listen to what he says. That means you too Len. Now get out!"

As the TV screen flashed off, the metal door slid open, revealing a long tunnel. While everyone else ran off, Len sorta just, jogged behind. Teto jogged beside him.

"Let's hurry up," she gasped. "Everyone else will get there before us."

"How?" Len asked. "How long is this tunnel anyway?"

"Not too much left. There's a pad at the end that'll take us to the location. Just keep your arms tight at your sides and you'll be fine."

Up ahead, Len could see people running onto a raised platform at the end of the hall, and disappearing into a flash of blue light. Based off what Teto said, it was a teleporter, Len assumed. Like Teto also said, Len snapped his elbows to his waist, thought kept his arms pumping as he ran onto the teleporter with Teto, and the two were wisked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, mega thanks to mahoustar and draconia1011 for letting use their characters, kit and Tsukiyomi respectively!!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first story of mine to be this long in chapters. small victories I guess :)  
> also, sorry for the length of this one

Len felt his feet hit coarse grass, as he teleported with everyone else to a beachfront. Well, it actually wasn't much of a beach, there was hardly any sand. A wall of dirt and grass stood tall behind them, with a small, sandy ramp in the middle, leading up to a lake house. The hideout of the Hunters that attacked Ruby, Clara, and the others' base.

"We're at the lake front, and the other team is safe on the forest side," Piko said, his voice ringing a little in Len's ears. "Len, you remember your part?"

"I do," Len said quietly, hoping Piko heard him.

"We'll all wait here then. The Hunters' spot is just up the hill, it's the lake house. When their stuff is down, give us the signal. Good luck."

Len tugged on his sleeves once more before running up the steep hill, the splintered wood of the logs below creaking under his feet. He hoped his shallow breathing and panicked face would sell. Hastily, he reached to knock on the door, but was stopped by a young man with unruly red hair, as he already opened the door a crack.

"What do you want, kid?" he asked. "We're busy."

"I... I want to join you guys," Len gasped.

"Really cute. Why?"

"I can fight! My brother taught me all his skills, and I can take down a User like the best of em!" Len made a few uppercuts in the air to emphasize his point.

"Who's this brother you talk about?" the man pressed. "He around here?"

Len's face dropped at the question. He looked down to his feet, his brain running to remember what he planned. "No... no he's not. He died a few months ago. His name... his name was Moke."

The man's face dropped as well. "Oh. I knew Moke. He was a good soldier. Never said anything about having a brother though."

"I'm sure he didn't. Outside of fighting, we didn't get along too well."

"Ah, I understand. My own bro's never been too fond of me either." The man stared at Len for a few seconds longer, then he said,

"Fine. Get in here. But don't think you're off the hook yet." The man opened the door fully, allowing Len inside. The two walked into the living room of the base, which mainly consisted of multiple couches around a coffee table, filled with maps and weapons. Len couldn't help but grimace at the sight of it all.

"I'm Fukase," the man introduced. "And you are..."

"Oh, right! Len. Zhiyu Len," Len greeted, bowing slightly. Fukase did the same.

"Nice to meet you, Len. I'll show you around, have you meet some of the other guys."

The two walked through the living room into a small hallway, which led off into four other rooms. Two were bedrooms, one was a weapons room, and the last one had a keypad next to it. Most likely the security room.

Fukase led Len inside the first bedroom, where two men sat on opposite beds, discussing something.

"Hey, Yo-yo! Chris! New recruit, say hi!" Fukase gestured to Len, who waved sheepishly. The two men waved back; one man had blond, shaggy hair and fair skin, while the other had darker skin and a buzz cut.

"Hey newbie. I'm Yohio, this is Chris," the blond haired man introduced. The other man, Chris, waved hello once more.

"Len. Nice to meet you," Len grinned.

"He's Moke's brother," Fukase added. "Len learned all his fighting tactics apparently." There was a lingering silence in the room after Fukase spoke.

"Your brother was a good man, Len," Chris finally sighed. "Glad you're following his footsteps though, helping us rid Users off this planet."

"Heh, whatever I can do to help, I'm ready!" Len exclaimed, scratching the back of his head. Fukase tapped Len on the shoulder.

"Let's see the rest of the house, shall we?" he asked, already leading Len out of the room.

The second bedroom was empty, and the weapons room was filled with, well, weapons. Fukase told Len they could test out his weapon skills tomorrow, and then they left the house, to the front porch.

"Wait, what was in the room with the keypad?" Len asked.

"Oh, that's just our security closet. Only authorized personnel can go there," Fukase explained.

"Can't we just like... check it out? What if I would have to do something with it one day?"

"Then you'd learn the day before."

"Come on, please? We saw every other room!"

Fukase leered at Len for a moment, but then his expression dropped.

"Fine. God, you're making me do a lot today." Fukase trudged back inside the house, Len in tow. They stopped in front of the keypad door. Fukase whipped his head around to see if Len was watching him, which the boy wasn't. Satisfied, the red haired man entered the pin code, and opened the door.

"Here's our security room then," Fukase said.

Instantly, Len dashed inside and started fiddling with various knobs and controls.

"Techy one, are ya?" Fukase joked. Len ignored him, searching for some sort of switch or button that would set the plan in motion. If only these guys thought to use a label.

"Hey Len, let's go meet the other guys," Fukase said after a while, gesturing toward the door.

"One second," Len spat out, his hands flying over the control panels. Fukase frowned at him, his eyes fixed on the boy's hands.

"Len, I said let's go." Len didn't respond, as he slammed his fist down on a green button. The lights around the two flickered, and then went out.

"What the hell did you do?" Fukase shouted. Len pressed his fingers to his ear, and squeezed a small button on one of his earbuds.

"My job."

* * *

Back on the beach, Piko heard five short beeps in his headphones. He looked up from his tablet.

"That was the signal! Let's go you guys!"

Instantly, everyone started rushing up the beach and short cliff, Abilities at the ready. Miku's pigtails balled into fists, Teto took to the skies and shot her tail straight up, the harpoon-like tip dripping with poison.

On the other end of the lake house, Luka, Gumi, and their team ran in for the other side of the ambush.

"You all know what to do!" Luka shouted. Within seconds, the front door was knocked down, a cloud of dust rushing through the living room. Both teams were now inside, and already engaged in battle. Though Luka could've sworn that there was a flash of white and yellow disappear from behind a bush...

From behind the kitchen counter, Tsukiyomi glanced off at Kit and made a few hand signals. Kit nodded in understanding, and Tsukiyomi ran off, pointing vaguely at Kit's side before she disappeared. Kit looked to where Tsuki was pointing to see herself and Ruby, also in her group, surrounded by furniture and two Hunters. Ruby and Kit stared at each Hunter before them, and pounced.

Kit whipped out a small book from behind her back and opened its pages. Suddenly, a bright blue wisp flew out, taking the form of a human. It looked at Kit, and she smiled.

The spirit threw a punch at the oblivious Hunter, and he flew backwards into the wall.

"What kind of wizard shit is this?" the Hunter scowled to himself. When he managed to unpeel himself from the wall, the spirit struck again with two more hits and punches. The Hunter eventually flopped to the carpet, unmoving with blood trickling from his ears. Kit high-fived the spirit before he went back into her book.

Kit looked back at Ruby, who was also standing over her now dead Hunter. Sharp shards of rock and crystal stuck through every inch of his body, creating a bloody mess. She looked up to see the kitsune next to her, giving a nervous thumbs up. Ruby smiled back before running out of the house with a few others. Seeing the coast was clear, Kit ran off as well to find Tsukiyomi. She had a good idea of where she probably went.

Tsukiyomi was in the security room with Len. While Len searched through a desk drawer for Tsuki, the girl held off Fukase. As though the timing was perfect, Tsukiyomi punched Fukase hard in the face, sending him tumbling into the open doorway, where Kit smacked him upside the back of his head with her book. He fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Got it!" Len cheered, holding up a small card. Tsukiyomi patted him on the back.

"Thanks, hon. Let's move!" She took the card from Len, and the three of them ran out to the living room once again, only for Len to be tackled and pinned to the wall by Yohio, one hand wrapped tight around the boy's throat. Tsukiyomi and Kit yelled, but were soon engaged in fisticuffs with two more Hunters, just their luck.

"You goddamn traitor!" he shouted, cracking Len across the cheek. Len yelped in pain, feeling a trickle of blood from his nose. Before Yohio could go in for another punch, his head jerked forward as though something hit him. He looked back to see what it was, giving Len the opportunity to punch him back. The two flopped to the floor, Len gasping the air back into his body. As he struggled to stand up, Yohio kicked him back down.

"You fucking scum Users know where you stand!" Yohio growled, holding his nose. He kicked Len again, in the stomach. All the air that Len had gained was lost again, as he slumped down, wheezing.

Yohio raised his foot again to stomp it down on Len's back, when a sickening squelching noise came from above. His foot dropped lightly on Len's back.

As soon as Len started breathing normally again, he looked up to see what had happened. A large vine had pierced through Yohio's torso, lifting him a few inches off the ground. He was dead, no doubt. Len wobbled up to his feet, looking off to both avert his gaze from the gruesome sight, and see that the last two Hunters were incapacitated by Kit and Tsukiyomi.

"You ok, Len?" Kit asked, clutching her book tight to her chest. She then noticed Yohio's body, as it hovered limply above the ground. Kit looked sick.

"That wasn't you, was it?" she asked softly, pointing at Yohio. Tsukiyomi turned around to see what Kit was talking about. Her jaw dropped at the sight. Len shook his head at Kit's question. His mind turned from the dead body to the thick vine that punctured through it.

_The only one who could make a vine like that... but she's not here, is she?_

"Let's go, guys," Tsukiyomi said, pointing to the beach. Everyone else had gathered, and was waiting for the trio to hurry up.

"I need to find something else," Len said, "Tell the others they can leave without me."

Kit and Tsuki looked at each other, then back at the boy. "Ok," said Kit, as the two of them proceeded to leave the house. Len stood still, watching as they ran down the log steps to the small beachfront. He then turned to the nearest window and hopped out of it.

"Rin?" he called out into the forest. "Are you there? Did you kill Yohio?"

There was silence for a while, but then a flash of yellow broke out among the green and brown. Then a blue eye opened.

"Len?" Rin stepped out from behind a tree. Len had nothing but shock on his face.

"Rin? How did you get here?" he shouted. Rin gazed down at her shoes.

"I followed you guys as you ran to the lake house. I just wanted to see how the mission would go. I asked Yukari if she wanted to come with me, but she wanted to stay at the base. Then I saw you were fighting, and I felt like I had to help somehow. So I stuck my hands in the ground and just... wanted something to happen."

Len sighed. "Well... you ended up killing someone with a big vine. I don't know if you knew that."

Rin froze. "I thought I felt something weird. I didn't even mean to make it big. Was it a User?"

"No, a Hunter, luckily. I'm glad you helped, honestly. More than you probably know, but you should really find a way to get out of here. I dunno if you'll be able to leave via the teleporting system and not having anyone see you at the same time." Rin nodded.

"I didn't really think that part through," she whispered.

Len tapped his chin. Then he pointed at Rin, an idea in his brain.

"Hold on! I'll give you my clothes, you can go back as me," Len explained, already taking off his hoodie. Rin placed her hands on his shoulders, stopping him before he could go any further.

"Whoa whoa whoa, soulja boy. You're sure about this, first off?"

"Rin, I want to help you. I've been here much longer than you, I don't want you to get in trouble. As long as you're ok with this, I'm happy to do this."

Rin pursed her lips together, but ultimately nodded her head. "Alright then. Just... change over there, give yourself some privacy." Rin pointed to behind a nearby pine tree. Len nodded and walked to behind the tree, pulling off his hoodie as he did so. A few seconds passed, then...

"Hey Rin? Think you can create a bush or two? Not for the reason you think, just for the extra privacy!"

Rin sighed, smiling and shaking her head. Slowly, she wandered over to as near the tree as she could and stuck her fists in the dirt, her eyes squeezed shut.

 _Ok, just some bushes. Big enough to cover up my brother, got it?_ she thought. When she opened her eyes, two lush bushes stood in the ground. Len gave a thumbs up from behind the tree.

A minutes later, and Len tossed all his clothes over the bushes at Rin's feet. Quickly, Rin scooped them up and ducked behind a separate tree. The clothes seemed baggy enough that she could disguise herself. So as not to damage anything, Rin swapped her clothes, as well as taking off her headband and putting in in her pile. With a saunter, she dropped her clothes and headband back behind the bushes. A couple minutes later, and Len stepped out in Rin's clothes. Rin couldn't help but crack a smile.

"You look just like me," she grinned. "Except for the hair..."

Rin brushed her hands through her brother's hair, smoothing out the bangs and readjusting the headband. When she finished, it was like looking in a mirror.

"You too," Len smirked, proceeding to messy Rin's bangs and pull her hair in a low ponytail, his gloved hands working efficiently.

"Take these also, they're my earpieces. If they see me wearing them, it might tip them off." Len stuck what felt like small, plastic circles in Rin's ears.

"Seems good?" Len and Rin nodded in sync.

"Then let's go."


	11. Chapter 11

Rin was ever so grateful for Len to take the fall for her. While she now dined as her brother with Yukari and Gumi in the cafeteria, Len was slapped on the wrist and under house arrest in his bunk with Teto and Luka. To Rin's luck, no one seemed to be talking about the mission.

"You did great on the mission Len," Gumi smiled, taking a sip of her tea. Rin nodded, happy for the compliment, even though it wasn't technically meant for her.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Everything alright Len?" Yukari asked. "You've been very quiet since you came back." Rin nodded again.

"Just kinda drained," she sighed. Gumi nodded, understanding.

"Well, I'm happy to take you and Yukari back to your guys' bunk to see Len," she suggested.

Yukari shook her head. "I want to keep eating if that's ok." Gumi mumbled an ok.

"You're free to head off to the bunk then, Len. You know where it is. I'll keep Ms. Yukari company," she grinned. Rin nodded and stood up, quickly taking her leave.

As she walked down the hall to the bunks, she kept her head to the ground. As long as Teto and Luka weren't there, she and Len could freely exchange clothes and reaffirm their spots. She had to do something to thank her brother later.

While she continued to go over the plan, she accidentally bumped into someone's shoulder. She looked back to see it was Tsukiyomi, and she was looking at her as well.

"Hey Rin," she said.

After a second, Rin broke out into a cold sweat. How did Tsuki know she was Rin? Who told her?

"Uh, what?" Rin asked, hoping the dumb act worked. It didn't.

"Oh, it's fine. No one's around, and I won't tell," Tsukiyomi chuckled. Rin eased up a little now, glad she was still in the clear, and Len too.

"How did you know?" she questioned.

"I kinda saw it coming. I'm glad I was right this time," Tsuki explained.

"Once again, what?"

"Oh, yeah! You don't know. That's my Ability. I can see about 30 seconds into the future. It's not always accurate though, but I'm glad I was right this time. I saw that you and Len might've exchanged clothes so Len could hide something he was about to do. I was probably wrong on that last bit, but I'll take what I can get."

Rin gawked at Tsuki's entire ramble. It at least made a little sense in the end.

"Oh, and another thing how I knew you aren't Len. Look at your hands," Tsuki said, pointing at Rin's hands. The girl looked at them, was something wrong with them?

"Len always wears those gloves of his. He never, if ever, takes them off. It'd be a little weird if he just started now, at least that's what I think. But again, I won't tell. Don't worry!" Tsukiyomi winked before she disappeared around the corner. Rin stared at where she last stood before walking off into Len's bunk. To their luck, no one else was there.

"Ready to swap again?" Rin asked. Len nodded. 

"Ok, no one's looking, let's go."

In a matter of minutes, the twins swapped clothing and hairstyles once again, right before Luka walked back inside the door.

"Hey Len, Piko and I wanna talk with you, Kit, and Tsuki," she said. Len stood up and smiled weakly, walking with Luka out the door. Luka gave Rin an angry glance before shutting the door.

Rin now sat alone in the bunk, with barely anything to do. She knew she was in the wrong for sneaking out to be part of the mission, she knew she shouldn't have acted on impulse like that. But she helped, didn't she? Even if she still didn't have the best control on her Ability, she did something good, didn't she?

Rin bided her time by trying to get more used to the sensation of vines growing from the tips of her fingers. She didn't like how they went numb and a sickly green to start with, it was like she was getting sick at the fingers. She made sure to keep a steady grip on the bed, so as not to faint or fall over from seeing double. Nevertheless, she never knew when she would need to use this in the future, so why not try now? After a few minutes, Yukari came inside the bunk with two bowls of food.

"Hey Rin. I wanted to bring you some food," she said. She sat down on a bed, and placed a hot bowl of soup at Rin's feet, keeping the secnd one for herself, having already taken a sip out of it.

Rin gingerly took the bowl and took a gulp from the spoon. It was hot, close to burning Rin's tongue, but it was good.

"Miso?" Rin asked. Yukari nodded.

"Reminds me of mom..." the girl whispered, her eyes staring off towards long forgotten memories. Rin let her be, and continued to eat her soup. The more she tasted the broth, the more she felt like it was missing something.

"Needs mushroom," Rin realized. She stared at the half empty bowl, then at her hand that was holding the spoon. Carefully, she set the spoon down and clenched her hand into a fist. She winced as her fingertips grew to that sickly green color again, but allowed it to pass as they lengthen and twisted around in her palm to grow a medium sized mushroom, perfect to go into the miso soup.

"Want some?" Rin asked, showing the mushroom off to Yukari. The girl stared at it for a few seconds, then shook her head. Rin shrugged and picked apart the vegetable, plopping the bits into the broth, then eating it up. Perfect.

"It must be nice to have a useful Ability," Yukari mumbled. Rin perked her head up.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Yukari looked at Rin, surprised, like she didn't expect the blond haired girl to hear her. "Nothing," she whispered. The conversation ended there, as they finished their soup. Yukari then took Rin's empty bowl and left.

 _Well that was a conversation_ , Rin thought. _It was at least nice to have some company._

* * *

**_Meanwhile...._ **

"You actually have it?" Piko asked, clutching his tablet close to his chest.

"Right here in my hand!" Tsukiyomi declared, showing off a slim card that looked no different than the average key card for a hotel room.

"What's it gonna do?" Len questioned.

Piko pulled out a slim, black device with a slot in the middle as though to answer. Tsuki slid the card into the slot, causing a complex, blue hologram to pop up.

"This little baby has the locations of all the Hunter bases, in case they ever needed to relocate like we would sometimes," she explained. "And if one were to search hard enough..." A keypad popped up on the device, which Tsukiyomi typed in a couple numbers to bring up a large building complex.

"We could find the highest up base! The HQ of all the Hunters!" Everyone applauded.

"And we've got no one but you guys to thank for finding this and getting it to us," Luka said.

"Not a problem," Kit grinned.

"Luka and I will get this to Lola to figure out what to do next," Piko said. "You guys are free to get going now."

Kit, Tsukiyomi, and Len bowed their heads in thanks before standing up to leave, a new sense of determination flowing through all of them.

Partway down the hall, Kit placed her hand on Len's shoulder to stop him. "Hey Len?" she asked. The boy turned around to face the kitsune.

"I could tell... back at the lake house... you were nervous about something. I'm not entirely sure, but Luka was concerned too. She thought it was about your Ability. Is that right?"

Len's face flushed, but he nodded to confirm.

"Ah, that explains the nervousness. I still somewhat sense it. You didn't want to use it in the fight. I get it. But you know there will come a day when you have to use it. That's all I'm saying."

"I don't want anyone to die," Len sniffed.

"I know you don't. But you saw what happened back at the lake house. There's always bloodshed in wars, and there will almost always be death. Trust me, I know that firsthand. I wish it didn't have to be like that, but..." Kit pursed her lips, deciding to change the subject before it got too gruesome.

"Even then, you're still training, right? You have been for a while. You must have gotten better with it, no? If you play your cards right, it'll be fine. I believe in you, Len," Kit said, rubbing the boy's shoulder. Then she left. Len wanted to go back to his bunk with Rin, but his legs wouldn't move, filled with lead and sadness.

_I know you believe in me, Kit. You're a wonderful and kind person, and I know you care about me. But you don't get it._


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for making the chapter lengths of these so inconsistent

Rin wiped her sweaty forehead with her free hand, while her other hand sent out vines to entangle a cloth dummy.

"Again," Gumi ordered from the other side of the room. She had Len and Yukari by her side, as they watched the training session unfold. Rin retracted her vines from her one hand, and let the thin stalks shoot out from her other hand to attack the dummy. And she did it again, and again as Gumi ordered her to.

"Now finish it," she ordered.

Rin lashed her stalks forward, wrapped them around the dummy, then jumped forward like she was Spider-Man. She landed on the dummy, knocking it over to the floor. She looked up to Gumi for any other instruction.

"Good," Gumi grinned. "You can be done now. That's all."

Rin smiled weakly, happy the training was at least over for now. She stumbled off the dummy and walked to the wall, where Yukari handed her a water bottle and a hand towel. Rin took off her green track jacket and tied around her waist, eagerly accepting Yukari's offers.

"Ok, great. Len, your turn," Gumi said. Len looked up at her, eyes wide as saucers.

"I, uh..." he stammered quietly.

"Len, you've been doing great these past few weeks. This is no different, it's just a little more public than what you normally have."

"I won't judge your Ability, I promise," Yukari said. Rin nodded in agreement.

Len gulped, slowly tugging off his gloves. "Ok, yeah."

"Hey, just stop when you get uncomfortable. Like every other time, ok?" Gumi explained. Len nodded.

"Alright, go ahead whenever. Remember what I told you from the last session."

Len stretched his fingers and knuckles out, breathing in deeply. Then, he started to jumped and dance around the dummy like a gymnastics expert, doing backflips and high kicks left and right.

"Good, now finish it," Gumi ordered.

Without missing a beat, Len spun to the back of the dummy and swiped it to the floor. Then he put his hands on the dummy, as though he were trying to strangle it. Nothing happened for a for a few seconds, until the stuffed straw and cotton inside started to visibly decay. The inside of the dummy turned black, until nothing was left but a deflated dummy and a crunchy mess. Rin and Yukari's eyes went wide.

"You ok, Len?" Gumi asked. Len brushed his hands off.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Gumi turned to the girls. "Well, there you have it. Yukari, you wanna go next?"

Yukari shook her head rapidly. "No, I don't wanna fight."

"That's ok. So unless we have something else to do... oh! Len, Rin, you both feeling up to some sparring maybe?"

The twins looked at each other, nervous.

"Uh, if you don't want to..." Len said quietly.

"I mean, unless you're not up to it..." Rin muttered.

"I just wouldn't wanna hurt you."

"I can do ranged attacks, if that would work."

"Ok. Just tell me if I'm hurting you, ok?" Len cracked his knuckles.

"Sounds good to me." Rin untied her jacket and tossed it to the floor. "Ready when you are."

Len watched Rin's eyes glow their subtle green, along with her fingers. He cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers, prepared for the first strike.

Rin went first, sending a web of stalks from her palms, aiming at Len's legs. Len was too slow to react, and the stalks swept his feet to the ground. He scrambled back up before another swing of Rin's stalks could bring him down, and kicked away her next attack. Rin stumbled back, tripping over her feet and falling on her bottom.

Len took the opportunity to get the jump on his sister, but Rin managed to kick him off herself before he could get any hits in. She then jumped back to her feet and took a stance, prepared for the next move. What she didn't expect was for Len to instantly jump on her and pin her to the ground.

Images suddenly flooded Rin's mind. Memories of that fateful day with the popsicle. The man who jumped her. The day Rin discovered she was a User. Acting almost on instinct, she gripped Len's wrists and dug her nails into his skin. Her eyes glowed a bright green.

"Rin! You-" Len struggled to talk as he felt an odd sensation in the back of his throat. He coughed out rose petals.

"Len! Rin!" Gumi dashed up to try to pull Len off his sister, but the two were locked to each other like glue. Gumi flung her hands to her head, distraught.

"Rin," Len pleaded, his throat raw from coughing out flower petals. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Please, stop and we can talk if you-" Len vomited out more rose petals.

As Rin was reliving her memory, Len was squeezing Rin's shoulders tightly, trying to pry himself off. He suddenly noticed light grey veins appearing where his hands were. His eyes widened in terror. Hastily, he slid his hands off Rin's shoulders, and fell on her chest as a result. Rin didn't seem to notice.

Just then, there was a soft popping noise. Rin's eyes stopped glowing and her face went blank. Her hands trailed off Len's arms, and she screeched.

"Rin! What happened?" Gumi asked, rushing over again to help the girl up. Rin was sobbing, her arms flopped lifeless at her sides. It was then Gumi noticed the light grey veins on Rin's shoulders, headed to the start of her arms.

"Len, what happened?" Gumi looked over her shoulder to Len. His throat felt like sandpaper, and his arms had little green pinpricks left behind from Rin. He was shaking horribly.

"I didn't mean to," was all he whispered.

Gumi picked up Rin and shushed her as a mother would to her baby. "Let's get the both of you to the infirmary," she said, already walking out the door. Len followed behind her.

Yukari stood at the doorway, sobbing as well. Gumi looked at her sadly.

"Yukari, you can head back to your bunk if you wish. I'll be there with you once I drop Rin and Len off, ok?" she said. Yukari looked up at her with tear filled eyes and nodded. She ran away ahead of the group.

"It'll be alright," Gumi whispered, marching out the door.

* * *

"Well I've got good news and bad news," Tianyi said, flipping through Rin's clipboard. "The good news is Rin has only seemed to dislocate her shoulders."

"The bad news being?" Len asked, popping his third throat drop into his mouth. He unfolded one of his legs as he sat at the foot of Rin's cot.

"Because of what actually happened, the bone has deteriorated a little in her shoulders, which is what caused the dislocation. They're going to need quite the while to heal properly. But, we will do everything we can to get them to 100% as quick as possible," Tianyi explained. "Also, your throat feeling better, Len?"

Len responded with a thumbs up. "It still tickles a little, but I think it's fine."

"Ok. I'll come back to check on you guys later." Tianyi strutted off, leaving the twins alone.

Len stood up and walked to Rin's side. "Hey, I really wanted to apologize for what happened," he said. "Whatever I did to you that caused you to panic like that, I had no clue. I didn't mean to hurt you like that, in multiple ways."

"Like you said, you didn't know. That's ok. I know you didn't mean to. I just hate how it ended up like this," Rin said.

"Yeah, me too," Len whispered. "I really feel bad."

They remained in silence for a while after that. A few minutes passed, then Miku, Ruby, and Dean walked inside to see the twins.

"Hey guys. How's it going?" Miku greeted, her mouth in a sad-happy smile. "Gumi's still with Yukari, but she told us what happened."

"I think we're relatively ok," Rin answered. "I've just got weak bones for a little bit, I'll be ok."

"Rin's shoulders got dislocated," Len added on, struggling to not add 'because of me'. "My throat's still a little sore, but it's getting better."

"That's good to hear," Ruby said. "Dean and I were really worried." The little boy in Ruby's arms nodded. 

Suddenly, Tianyi came back, one of those small handheld flashlights and a tongue depressor in her hand. Mizki walked alongside her, pushing a small cart with various objects on it. While Mizki tended to Rin, Tianyi stood Len up and walked him a few feet away.

"Hey Len, just wanted to see how your throat is," Tianyi smiled. "You said your throat still tickled a little earlier, right? I just want to see how it's doing. Now open wide, ok?"

Len opened his mouth wide, and Tianyi used the stick to press his tongue down while she gazed down his throat with the flashlight. Her face scrunched up as she tried to see what was happening. Then she looked up, mildly surprised.

"Uh, Len? I think I know what happened. You said you were coughing up rose petals when you were with Rin, correct?" Len nodded.

"Well, I saw what appeared to have been a flower stem at the back of your throat. But, it's all withered now. Whether that's a result of your Ability or Rin's not being there anymore, I couldn't really say. The stem should be gone the next time you eat or drink something, so I wouldn't worry too much. As for your arms..." Tianyi daintily picked up one of Len's arms and turned it around, seeing the small pinpricks from before now a grey color as well.

"Same thing. Given your Ability, you should get better soon. That's all," Tianyi said.

A yelp made the two of them jump, as they turned around to see Mizki injecting medicine into Rin's shoulder via a needle. Len shuddered at the sight of it; he hated medical needles.

"I should get going now. Get well soon, Len." Tianyi turned on her heel and walked away, a holographic wing appearing from her back and carrying her the rest of the way.

Len walked back to Miku's side, as she finished a conversation with Dean. "Hey Miku," he greeted.

"Hey Len. We were just thinking about leaving," Miku responded. "Gonna watch Dean's flying lesson. Care to join us?"

Len watched Rin shudder as Mizki put away the last needle, and placed wet washcloths on her shoulders. "Nah, I wanna stay here with Rin. I'll catch up with you guys later, maybe."

Miku nodded. "Ok, sounds good. Tell Rin I said get well soon, ok? Come on Dean, I'm excited to see what neat tricks you learned this time!" Miku grabbed one of Dean's hands as Ruby took the other one, and the three left the infirmary. Len waited until they left completely before he walked back to Rin's bedside. Rin was breathing heavily.

"So. Death Ability, huh?" she gasped. Len nodded.

"Makes sense. I'm Life, you're Death, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"And that's why you wear the gloves?"

"Yeah. By the way, are you ok?" Rin nodded.

"Yeah, just had some medicine injected. Now I've got these hot washcloths, just in case of side effects, you know?"

Len hummed a little. "I'm gonna go see what Miku and Ruby are up to. Miku said get better. I'll come back soon, Rin."

"Ok. I'm gonna sleep a little," Rin yawned. "See ya later."

Len walked away as Rin shuffled down in her cot a little, and rested her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact about me- I have to post the fic first before I make any good edits to it. for some reason, that's when I realize I made some mistakes or wrote some stuff I could better up. that being said, I went through and edited some of the previous chapters of this story so it could flow a little better. check em out if you want!


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